Corning Inc, the world's largest liquid-crystal-display (LCD) glass maker, said yesterday that it was aggressively boosting capacity to satisfy voracious demand from Taiwan's flat-panel makers, which are increasing output to challenge their South Korean rivals.
"We hope to supply Taiwan customers with glass substrates from the manufacturing facilities here," James Clappin, general manager of Corning Display Technologies Taiwan, said yesterday in Tainan. The company supplies its Taiwanese customers mostly with glass substrates made in its US plants, he said.
Clappin made the remarks during a press conference to open the New York-based company's new plant in the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區).
The new facilities, part of a US$180 million expansion plan announced last year, will produce glass substrates for larger fifth-generation (5G) LCDs, the company said.
Each LCD panel requires two glass substrates with a layer of liquid crystals in between. Each generation of of displays is larger than the previous generation and sells for a lot more.
"We're feeling a shortage at all generations ... but we have no plan to raise prices at this point," Clappin said.
He said it was difficult to say when supply would improve.
Taiwan's thin-film transistor LCD sector is expected to increase output to 57.8 million units this year after investments worth US$9.42 billion in new equipment, according to DisplaySearch.
To meet increased demand for LCD glass, Corning last month announced it was investing a further US$600 million in Taiwan. More than 75 percent of the combined US$780 million investment will be spent on capacity expansion, according to Clappin. The company plans to expand its capacity in Taiwan by 30 percent to 50 percent over the next few years.
Despite the increase in LCD glass supply, Taiwan's major flat-panel players did not expect the supply crunch to improve any time soon.
"The shortfall will be controlled at a manageable level. But the supply constraints could remain in place through the whole of 2004," said Chen Hsuen-bin (
A big portion of AU's glass substrates come from Corning, according to the company.
Smaller rival Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) also felt the pinch of tight glass supplies, especially those for 5G glass substrates, Chao Lin-yu (趙令瑜), director of Chi Mei's procurement division, said on the sidelines of yesterday's ceremony. "LCD glass makers' expansion has lagged far behind that of flat-panel makers."
Alex Wu (
"They will be under pressure, of course. But the shortage will not be as severe as it appears to be," Wu said.
The supply constraints are expected to ease quarter by quarter this year after Corning and Asahi Glass Co start to operate their new plants in the second half, he said. Corning and Asahi are the two biggest LCD glass suppliers in Taiwan.
But Roger Yu (
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Taiwan is open to joining a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) program if one is created, but on the condition that countries provide delivery even in a scenario where there is a conflict with China, an energy department official said yesterday. While Taiwan’s priority is to have enough LNG at home, the nation is open to exploring potential strategic reserves in other countries such as Japan or South Korea, Energy Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said. While the LNG market does not have a global reserve for emergencies like that of oil, the concept has been raised a few times —
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
AI-FUELED DEMAND: The company has been benefiting from the skyrocketing prices for DRAM chips amid the AI frenzy, especially its core product — DDR4 DRAM chips DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday reported that its revenue for the first quarter surged 582.91 percent to NT$49.09 billion (US$1.54 billion) from NT$7.19 billion a year earlier, as the supply crunch caused chip price spikes. Last quarter’s figure is the highest on record. On a quarterly basis, revenue jumped 63.14 percent from NT$30.09 billion, the company said. In January, Nanya Technology expected global DRAM supply scarcity to continue through the first half of 2028, thanks to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) forecast prices of standard DRAM chips would rise between 58 percent and 63
RSS