CORNING, N.Y., April 29 -- Corning Inc. announced that its board of directors has approved preliminary funding to build a new liquid crystal display (LCD) glass substrate manufacturing facility in the Central Taiwan Science Park, Taichung, Taiwan.
Corning said site planning and preparation will begin immediately. Funding required for this new site plan is included in Corning's previously announced capital spending plans for 2004. Implementation and construction are pending full funding approval from the company's board of directors later this year.
"This new facility in Taichung, combined with the multiple expansions to our current facilities that we have announced over the past several months, will enable us to significantly grow our LCD glass substrate capacity to keep pace with rapid industry growth and increased migration to larger-generation glass substrates, particularly in Taiwan," said Donald B. McNaughton, senior vice president of Corning's display group.
McNaughton said the new facility plan follows a series of previously announced Corning LCD glass expansions that will take place in 2004 and 2005 at the company's Tainan, Taiwan and Shizuoka, Japan facilities. These expansions, with investments totaling more than $780 million, are currently on track to supply customers' growing needs, he said.
Corning said it expects LCD glass market volume to grow 30 percent to 50 percent annually over the next several years. McNaughton said key drivers of this growth include the popularity of notebook computers, the continued penetration of LCD desktop monitors and the emergence of LCD television. He said Corning's leadership position in the LCD glass market and its proprietary fusion technology is enabling both Corning and its equity venture in Korea, Samsung Corning Precision, to produce the leading shares of generation 5 and 6 glass substrates and to supply generation 7 later this year. Corning has also started to develop generation 8 substrates.
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