E Ink Holding's president Johnson Lee says that EIH expects to enjoy strong sales in Q4 2018 - and the growth momentum will continue in 2019. The increased sales will be driven by strong demand for electronic shelf label (ESL) products.
EIH's current production capacity is fully booked - and even though the company is increasing its capacity at its Linkou Taiwan plant, this will not be enough to meet the surging demand. EIH is now considering converting some of its production capacity at its US plant to produce ESL displays (the fab is currently exclusively making e-reader displays).
EIH further reports that ESL screen size is increasing, and commodity ESL displays are now extending to 5-7 inch displays - up from around 3-inch displays before.
E-reader display demand is now "returning to normal" (following three quarters of lower demand due to product transition at a major client - probably Amazon). EIH expects e-reader shipments to remain strong in 2019.
Finally, EIH reports that the digital signage is also starting to pick-up and it updates that it will complete the installation of over 1,000 e-paper bus stops in the Puxi area in Shanghai by the end of 2018.
