Corning Incorporated announced today that its board of directors has approved a $600 million capital expenditure plan to further expand the company’s liquid crystal display (LCD) glasssubstrates manufacturing capacity in Taiwan and Japan. The expansion will occur in phases over the next 24 months, with approximately 40 percent of the total expenditure to be incurred this year.This new investment will add melting and finishing capacity to the company’s Tainan, Taiwan and Shizuoka, Japan facilities. It will add significant production capacity of Corning’s Generation (Gen) 5glass substrates; more than double the capacity of Gen 6; and add Gen 7 capability. Each successive generation is a larger glass sheet size, enabling more efficient production by LCD manufacturers.Construction at the company’s Shizuoka, Japan and Tainan, Taiwan facilities will begin immediately. These facilities are planned to start producing glass from these expansions late in 2004 through2005, as operations come on-line.
Corning, a world-leading supplier of glass substrates for LCD is increasing its manufacturing capacity of large generation glass worldwide to keep pace with anticipated industry demand and the continuing shift to larger glass substrates by LCD manufacturers. This industry growth is driven by increasing market penetration of LCD desktop monitors and ongoing growth of notebook computers. Corning continues to believe that the annual market volume growth for LCD glass could be in the 30 percent to 50 percent range over the next several years. Corning’s revenues for LCD products will be dependent on market shares, pricing trends and the impact of exchanges rates.
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