Samsung to Add 7th-Generation LCD Production Line
Samsung, breaking ranks with joint venture partner Sony, said it will fund construction of a separate 7th- generation (7G) LCD production line that’s expected to start manufacturing 32W-46W sizes in 2006. Samsung will spend about $2 billion to build a clean room and purchase equipment for a production line in Tanjeong, S. Korea, that will have monthly capacity for 45,000 substrates.
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The new line will use 1.8x2.2 m glass to produce up six 46W panels from a single substrate, Samsung officials said. The company has invested $286.3 million in starting construction. The news came as Samsung prepares for the April start of production along a 7G line that it will operate jointly with Sony. The first line, which has monthly capacity for 60,000 substrates, will be used to produce 26W-46W sizes, company officials said. Sony invested about $1 billion in the first 7G line and it was unclear whether the company will provide any funding for the 2nd line. Sony officials weren’t available for comment.
The Tanjeong complex eventually will operate 4-5 production lines as part of a multiyear strategy, Mktg. Vp James Sanduski said: “We have the financial wherewithal and we see the opportunity in the marketplace to do this.”
Meanwhile, LG.Philips formed a joint venture with Nippon Electric Glass (NEG) -- Panju Electric Glass -- outside Seoul, S. Korea., to polish and process 7G glass. The joint venture, which will be 40% owned by LG.Philips, will source glass substrates from NEG’s factories in Japan. Construction of the polishing plant on land leased from Gyunggi Province is expected to begin in 2nd quarter 2005, and completion will be timed to coincide with the start-up of LG.Philips’s 7G production in the first half of 2006.
Despite forming the joint venture, LG.Philips will continue to source substrates from “various suppliers” including Samsung Corning Precision Glass, a spokesman said. LG.Philips buys substrates from Samsung-Corning and NEG for the 6G factory it opened last year.
Switzerland-based TFT-LCD equipment supplier Unaxis has terminated a lease in Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan that was to have been home to a 7G R&D and 6G equipment assembly facility. Unaxis held a ground-breaking at the park last June and said it would invest $32 million in the site. Unaxis said “fluctuations in the panel industry” caused it to suspend development plans. Since June, Taiwanese panel suppliers AU Optronics and Chi Mei Optoelectronics have postponed plans for 7G production, choosing instead to focus on 5G and 6G.
Unaxis told local newspapers its relations with Taiwanese suppliers hadn’t changed, but it declined to disclose how it would supply 6G plasma enhanced chemical- vapor deposition systems to its customers. Chunghwa Picture Tubes reportedly has purchased about 1/2 the equipment -- 30,000 glass substrates monthly -- it needed for first-stage 6G production from Unaxis, but shifted orders for 2nd-stage to U.S.-based AKT.