Corning Inc, the world's biggest maker of glass substrates for liquid-crystal-display (LCD) screens, yesterday said it is set to supply local customers with glass by the end of this year from a new plant in central Taiwan.
The US glassmaker said it has received the necessary government certificates to begin shipping LCD glass substrates from its Taichung manufacturing facility, according to a company statement yesterday.
"The Taichung facility will allow us to maintain pace and support our customers' demand for large LCD glass substrates," said James Clappin, president of Corning Display Technologies.
Corning's Taichung factory will manufacture Generation 5.5, Generation 6, Generation 7.5 and larger glass substrates to meet the continued strong demand for desktop monitors and the emerging growth in LCD televisions, Corning said.
The company's board recently approved an additional capital expenditure plan of US$425 million for the third-phase expansion of the Taichung facility, bringing the total capital expenditure for the new plant to about US$1.5 billion, Corning said.
The majority of the additional expenditure will be incurred next year and in 2007.
Corning is scheduled to hold an official grand opening ceremony for the new plant next month. The US firm has another plant valued at US$1 billion in Tainan, southern Taiwan.
Corning is a major supplier of LCD glass-substrates to Taiwanese makers of LCD panels for computers and televisions, including AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子). Local panel makers also buy their glass from Japanese companies such as Asahi Glass Co and Nippon Electric Glass Co.
According to statistics provided by the Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center under the Industrial Technology Research Institute, the output value of the nation's flat-panel displays is estimated at NT$840.6 billion (US$25.3 billion) this year, up 17.6 percent from a year earlier. The figure for next year will exceed the NT$1 trillion mark, the center forecast.
To meet growing demand for glass substrates here, Asahi Glass, Japan's top glassmaker, also planned to invest NT$20 billion in expanding its production facilities in Taiwan, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Asahi Glass Fine Techno Taiwan Co (
The glassmaker is renting 8 hectares of land at an industrial park in Yunlin County and is planning to build two furnaces to make glass substrates for LCD displays to satisfy local demand, according to the company.
Asahi Glass Fine Techno Taiwan is scheduled to make an initial investment of NT$5 billion to complete a furnace by the first quarter of 2007 with an estimated annual output of 4 million square meters for all sizes of LCD displays, the ministry said.
Currently, Asahi Glass Fine Techno Taiwan makes 8 million square meters of LCD substrates a year at two furnaces, representing an investment of NT$27 billion. The Japanese company supplies the nation's five LCD flat-panel makers.
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