TFT-LCD panel makers moving to higher technology, bigger size
Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp. (CMO), Taiwan's second-largest maker of large-size TFT-LCD panels, announced recently that it favors a 7.5-generation factory for its next-generation expansion.
Taiwan's biggest manufacturer of TFT-LCD panels, AU Optronics Corp., is also planning its next-generation business and will make a final decision on it in the second quarter of this year.
Korean competitors are also vigorously installing new facilities. Samsung LCD recently announced its intention to invest in a second 7G line, and LG-Philips LCD Co. (LPL) will build a 7.5G plant. In Japan, Sharp has decided to build an 8G plant.
Industry sources here say that these aggressive moves by their South Korean and Japanese counterparts will have an impact on the future development of the panel industry in Taiwan, and force the island's manufacturers to respond at once in order to secure future market share.
Construction work on CMO's fifth panel plant in the Southern Taiwan Science Park was brought to a halt last year because of the industry's unclear prospects. Work has been started again, but the generation of technology the plant will use has not yet been decided.
CMO chairman Ho Chao-yang says that his company will not face a capacity shortage for at least the next year, thanks to added production from its new 5.5G plant and the expansion of a 5G facility. With LCD-TV panel demand growing rapidly, the chairman stresses, CMO will certainly become involved in the beyond-7G business.
One industry insider notes that the 7.5G substrate is currently the largest, most economical, and most readily available (based on technological maturity) size that can be economically cut into 42- and 47-inch LCD-TV panels. For 7G substrates, the most cost-beneficial sizes are 40 and 46 inches.
A senior CMO official says that the future market mainstream will be LCD-TVs over 40 inches in size, and that his own company will initially plan for a relatively low monthly production capacity of as little as 30,000 panels, compared with 60,000 or 90,000 with previous projects. The aim of this flexible strategy is to keep capital spending down and make ready for an expansion of capacity whenever market demand grows and panel prices rise to more reasonable levels.
In the fierce competition for new-generation production facilities, industry sources caution, Taiwan's panel makers will have to move quickly in mapping out their future development strategies to keep pace with their South Korean and Japanese rivals, who are targeting 40- to 50-inch-and-up LCD TV panels with 7G, 7.5G, and 8G plant projects. more...
