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 (
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
Nintendo Co hopes to match the runaway success of the Switch when its leveled-up new console hits shelves on Thursday, with strong early sales expected despite the gadget’s high price. Featuring a bigger screen and more processing power, the Switch 2 is an upgrade to its predecessor, which has sold 152 million units since launching in 2017 — making it the third-best-selling video game console of all time. However, despite buzz among fans and robust demand for pre-orders, headwinds for Nintendo include uncertainty over US trade tariffs and whether enough people are willing to shell out. The Switch 2 “is priced relatively high”
RSS