Nippon Electric Glass Co. plans to increase its monthly production capacity for LCD panel substrates by 20% to 2.7 million sq. meters in October 2007.
The firm has already spent around JPY 28 billion…
Nippon Electric Glass Co. plans to increase its monthly production capacity for LCD panel substrates by 20% to 2.7 million sq. meters in October 2007. The firm has already spent around JPY 28 billion to add equipment at its Notogawa plant in Shiga Prefecture, boosting output capacity by 30% to 2.3 million sq. meters a month by the end of March 2007. Following on from this capital investment, Nippon Electric Glass will spend about JPY 11 billion to renovate glass production equipment at its Takatsuki plant in Shiga Prefecture, including glass melting furnaces. Meanwhile, the firm“s joint venture factory in Shanghai to cut and clean glass substrates is set to begin operations in September 2007. This will give Nippon Electric Glass the opportunity to expand the supply of substrates to foreign LCD panel makers, including South Korea“s LG.Philips LCD Co.; Taiwan“s AU Optronics Corp.; and SVA (Group) Co., a Chinese firm that is a partner in the joint venture factory. Through these efforts, the company will keep pace with the growing global demand for LCD panels and catch-up with the other two firms that, together with Nippon Electric Glass, dominate the global market and are also spending to raise their capacity. Corning Inc. of the US holds 50% of the total market, while Asahi Glass Co. is in second place with around 25%. Nippon Electric Glass has around 20%.