Corning Inc, the world's largest maker of liquid-crystal-display (LCD) glass substrates, said its board had agreed to invest US$453 million to expand its manufacturing capacity in Taiwan as demand for high definition TV sets increases worldwide.
The announcement will help Corning compete with rival Asahi Glass Co of Japan to increase supplies of LCD glass substrates to local customers including AU Optronics Corp (
A statement released by New York-based Corning on Wednesday said the increased capital expenditure would be earmarked for the fourth-phase expansion of its facility in Taichung over the next two years.
Corning was scheduled to hold a conference call with analysts in New York yesterday to provide its market outlook.
"As consumers express their clear preference for LCD televisions, the industry is growing at a rapid rate, and we are continuing to develop the Taichung facility in order to keep pace with projected demand," James Clappin, president of Corning Display Technologies, said in the statement.
Sales of flat-panel displays may rise 12 percent to US$106 billion this year, with TV panels accounting for more than 40 percent of that, DisplaySearch estimated. Shipments of LCD TVs, meanwhile, are expected to reach 165 million units worldwide by 2011 from 80 million units last year, researcher iSuppli has said.
Corning started supplying its Taiwanese customers in 2003 with two factories at the Southern Taiwan Science Park (
Tokyo-based Asahi Glass, the world's second-largest glass substrates maker, also produces locally through its wholly owned subsidiary, Asahi Glass Fine Techno Taiwan Co (
The just-approved spending of US$453 million in Taiwan is part of Corning's US$1.5 billion to US$1.7 billion capital expenditures it announced earlier this year.
The US company said in the statement that it planned to use the new expenditure to produce a range of large-size glass substrates including 8G to meet growing demands from Taiwanese customers.
Mass production is scheduled to begin by the first quarter of next year, it said.
Over the past two years, LCD TV sets measuring at least 40 inches diagonally have been a primary driver of growth for LCD glass demand worldwide, Corning said, adding that the glass demand is expected to continue, partly driven by the emergence of 50 inch and larger LCD TVs.
"The high demand for LCD TV panels has translated to accelerated growth for our customers in Taiwan," Alan Eusden, president of Corning Display Technologies Taiwan, said in the same statement.
"Corning is focused on meeting customer supply agreements to support panel manufacturers' ongoing advancement," he said.
RESERVES ADEQUATE: The central bank governor rejected claims that Taiwan was facing a cash shortage, saying that its financial system had ample savings The New Taiwan dollar’s 3 percent fall this year despite record exports and a widening trade surplus stems from foreign investors cashing in on the local stock market’s technology-driven rally and moving funds overseas, central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) told lawmakers yesterday. The NT dollar has become one of Asia’s weakest-performing major currencies this year. Foreign investors have reaped substantial gains from Taiwan’s surging stock market, prompting them to sell shares and rebalance their portfolios, Yang told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee in Taipei. Their withdrawals have added to downward pressure on the NT dollar, offsetting support
‘ON SCHEDULE’: Chief executive officer Rick Tsai said that TSMC ‘remains our most important partner’ as MediaTek seeks to meet robust customer demand Chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it has secured a second customer for its customized artificial intelligence (AI) accelerator for data centers, while volume production of a second-generation chip for an existing customer is on track for early 2028, potentially easing market concerns about possible delays. This is a new customer and, crucially, not from China, MediaTek said. The remarks were meant to dismiss speculation that ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動), the parent company of TikTok, was the second customer for MediaTek’s new customized AI application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) business. “It is on track, on schedule. We understand there is some noise about the
The artificial intelligence (AI) supercycle should last for more than two decades, former Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger told an event in Taipei yesterday, dismissing fears of an AI bubble amid mounting skepticism over massive infrastructure investments. “We do see that there will be periods of disruption, correction, etc. So, we do not think of it as an AI bubble,” Gelsinger, who is a general partner at Playground Global LLC, said at the US venture capital firm’s second annual Taiwan Deep Tech Summit. However, “we’ll have some speed bumps as different areas and different technology disruptions occur along it,” Gelsinger
ROOM TO GROW: The company’s biggest bottleneck is still space, chief financial officer Joseph Tung said, adding that it was scouting existing factories to acquire ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday raised its annual capital expenditure budget for the third time to US$11.5 billion, driven by expectations that customer demand next year would continue to outpace capacity, particularly for its leading-edge advanced packaging (LEAP) technologies used in artificial intelligence (AI) chips. ASE, the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, plans to add US$1 billion to its US$10.5 billion outlay on capacity expansion. About 60 percent of the US$500 million equipment budget would be allocated for LEAP and 40 percent for mainstream packaging technology capacity, ASE chief financial officer Joseph Tung (董宏思) told an online investors’
RSS