CHENGDU -- Idemitsu Kosan, a Japanese petroleum company that also develops and manufactures electronic materials, has opened its first organic light-emitting diode materials production base in China.

Located in the Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone, Southwest China's Sichuan province, the base has gone into mass production and is expected to deliver its first batch of products in early 2021, the company said.

This is the company's third OLED materials production base globally, and its construction began in December 2018. With a total investment of about 255 million yuan (about $38.8 million), the base belongs to the company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Idemitsu Electronic Materials (China) Co Ltd which was unveiled Tuesday.

The base has an annual production capacity of around 12 metric tons of OLED materials, according to the Chengdu Hi-tech Zone Management Committee.

OLED is a relatively new technology that is applied in display screens, such as smartphone and large-screen television displays.

Mitsushige Nakashima, general manager of Idemitsu Electronic Materials (China) Co Ltd said the materials will be first supplied to Chengdu and surrounding areas.