Samsung optimistic on LCD future market

The Samsung Electronics-Sony joint venture S-LCD Corporation held a topping out ceremony on Thursday to celebrate a major milestone in the construction of the eighth-generation LCD line at the Tangjeong production complex.

"We laid the groundwork for a leap forward with the success of our seventh-generation line and we will take that leap forward by leading the 50-inch level LCD TV market with the success of our eighth-generation line," Samsung vice chairman Chang Won-kie said. "S-LCD will evolve into a global success story that encompasses both Korea and Japan."

Samsung, the world's biggest maker of large liquid crystal display (LCD) panels so far this year, forecast a 16 percent growth in the market for notebook computer and monitor panels in 2007, to 242 million units, the company said in a statement prepared for a local investor meeting.

S-LCD, launched in 2004 with Samsung Electronics and Sony investing 50 percent each, will mass-produce LCD panels at the new facility in the second half of next year. The line will be capable of producing 50,000 motherglass substrates a month. S-LCD's seventh-generation line achieved capacity of 75,000 motherglass substrates a month in July this year and is to expand capacity to 90,000 a month by early next year.

The overall large-size panel shipment area reached 9.3 million square meters during the third quarter of 2006, with TV panels accounting for 40 percent at 4.1 million square meters, exceeding the 3.6 million square meters of monitor panels shipped. The shipment area of LCD TV panels was 0.4 million square meters in the third quarter of 2004, allowing a negligible penetration ratio of 14 percent, but this share surged to 28 percent in the third quarter of 2005.

Samsung is also the world's biggest memory chip maker and third-largest mobile phone manufacturer.

Source:Xinhua/Agencies