Flat-panel show expected to attract more companies

Taiwan's annual flat-panel display exhibition will attract more local and overseas flat-panel makers and component suppliers this year, the event's organizers predicted yesterday.

It is estimated that some 170 flat-panel-display makers, up 13 percent from the 150 exhibitors last year, will take part in Flat Panel Display 2004, said George Lin (林長次), president of Semiconductor Equipment and Material International (SEMI), Southeast Asia division.

The event will feature new flat-panel technologies and products at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall I between June 9 and June 12. Major Taiwanese flat-panel makers including AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) are scheduled to attend the show, Lin said.

Local flat-panel makers are expected to make NT$501.8 billion worth of flat-panel displays this year, up nearly 40 percent from NT$362.3 billion last year, according to forecasts by the Photonics Industry and Technology Development Association (PIDA), another organizer of the event.

Lin said he hoped the exhibition, with 456 booths, will become the world's second largest show of its kind after the annual FPD International show in Yokohama. That show, with 531 booths, attracted 240 flat-panel display makers including South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co and LG Philips.

The annual optoelectronics show will take place during the same week, according to PIDA.