WSJ: To outflank Samsung, Apple seeking OLED from China

From China Targets Apple With Push Into Advanced Smartphone Screens in Monday’s Wall Street Journal ($):

BOE Technology Group Co. plants already make display screens for Apple’s iPads and MacBook computers, and the company is also the world’s top producer of large liquid crystal screens. Now it is seeking to supply Apple with advanced organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, smartphone screens, according to people familiar with the plans…

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For Apple, landing BOE as an OLED display supplier provides it with an alternative to Samsung, which Apple competes with in smartphones but relies on for the OLED screens. Apple is keen to diversify its suppliers to minimize production risks and ensure price competition, industry analysts say.

Buying display screens from BOE, which is controlled by the Beijing city government and whose biggest shareholders are state-linked companies, could help Apple stay in China’s good graces—as long as BOE can meet Apple’s high bar for quality.

“It would be seen favorably by Chinese policy makers if Apple puts a stamp of good quality for China’s own technology of suppliers,” said Dan Wang, a technology analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics.

My take: Supply chain diplomacy in the heat of Trump’s trade war.