Taiwan NH Techno Glass to set up three smelting furnaces in Tainan

Taipei, May 30, 2003 (CENS)--Taiwan NH Techno Glass Corp., a subsidiary of Japan's NSG Group, will invest NT$7 billion (US$201.72 million at US$1:NT$34.7) to set up three glass smelting furnaces at the Tainan Technology Industrial Park.

The company will complete the construction of the three furnaces in three years, one in each year. The first furnace will be completed in March next year at an anticipated cost of NT$2 billion (US$57.63 million).

Taiwan NH Techno Glass will become the second foreign firm to build glass smelting furnaces in Taiwan. The first was the U.S.-based Corning Co.

Taiwan NH Techno Glass posted revenue of NT$2 billion (US$57.63 million) last year, accounting for one-tenth of the production value generated in the Tainan Technology Industrial Park. The company is planning to list on the Taiwan Stock Exchange or the over-the-counter securities market.

The smelting furnaces are used to produce mother glass, which is then further processed into glass substrates for use in color filters, a key component of thin film transistor-liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCDs). Corning is the world's largest manufacturer of glass substrates.

In view of the fast development of Taiwan's TFT-LCD manufacturing industry, Corning established Corning Display Technologies Taiwan to supply glass substrates to local manufacturers of TFT-LCDs and color filters. The top four local TFT-LCD producers--AU Optronics Corp., Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp., Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Ltd, and HannStar Display Corp.-- as well as the local color filter makers Cando Corp. and Allied Material Technology Corp. are clients of Corning Taiwan.

Corning Taiwan currently operates a factory at the Tainan Science-based Industrial Park in southern Taiwan. The factory has six production lines to process mother glass into glass substrates of varying sizes for domestic supply.


As the domestic demand for glass substrates is increasing and many local TFT-LCD manufacturers are setting up or plan to set up production lines of fifth-generation TFT-LCD manufacturing technology, Corning Taiwan is building a new smelting furnace to be completed in 2004.