Merck confident in China's display market

Bernd Reckmann, member of the executive board of Merck KGaA, and CEO of Merck's Life Science & Performance Materials division.[Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Bernd Reckmann, member of the executive board of Merck KGaA, says China's "New Normal" will bring about big impact to foreign companies, but it will not stop Merck from further investing in the country. Reckmann is also CEO of Merck's Life Science & Performance Materials division.

"In a long run, we firmly believe China will remain a strong market and important manufacturing site for Merck," Reckmann says. "By the way, 7 percent is still a quite handsome growth rate."

During the 2015 Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan province, which concluded on March 29, Reckmann said the most important reason to attend Boao is to know the priorities of the Chinese government, so Merck can adjust their development plan accordingly.

In the 2014 annual report for Merck,sales grew by 5.5 percent to 11.3 billion euros in 2014, while total revenue rose by 3.7 percent to 11.5 billion euros.

According to the report, sales from emerging markets accounted for 38 percent of total sales, surpassing the European market (35 percent) for the first time.

Reckmann attributes Merck's success in China to three "D"s: Diseases, Displays, and Drug development. "These three areas keep us growing at a double-digit rate under the 'new normal'," he says.

The display market is especially robust in the past few years, he says. "Currently Merck Chemicals ranks third in the industry, but I'm confident that we will take the second place soon because we have very healthy partnership with our clients."

Two years ago, Merck established a liquid crystal center in China. "Liquid crystal is no longer trivial material, but it is everywhere in our daily lives," Reckmann says.

The Chinese liquid crystal manufacturing is becoming so important that Merck has transferred some of the supply chains from South Korea and Shanghai.

Although Merck has been in China for more than 80 years, it only started large-scale investment and manufacturing since five years ago.

Reckmann says he finds his Chinese clients very open to new technologies. "The organic light emitting diode products gained good growth last year, as Chinese clients are willing to adopt new technologies.This technology might eventually replace the liquid crystal technology."

Industry figures show that the manufacturing of lower-end display materials are being transferred to less developed places such as Southeast Asia, but the high-end OLED is still thriving in China.

"In the future, big-screen TV will become more flexible, more transparent to better fit into the living room. Our Chinese manufacturing sites are dedicated to making these technologies coming true."