Corning to Restart Capacity Expansion Plan in Taiwan

Taipei, June 23, 2010 (CENS)--Corning Taiwan Corning Display Technologies Taiwan, the local subsidiary of the world's largest supplier of LCD-use glass substrates, recently announced to restart a capacity-expansion plan on the island to meet strong demand.

Alan Eusden, chairman and president of Corning Taiwan, pointed out that the glass-substrate market in the third quarter looks upbeat.

Swept by the global meltodown, most thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panel makers lowered production utilization, while Corning Taiwan also temporarily halted its capacity expansion plan in Taiwan. The recovering global economy has been driving panel demand, as well as an earthquake in central Taiwan in March that has tightened supply of glass substrates since early this year.

According to Eusden, all of Corning Taiwan's production lines affected by the earthquake have returned to normal production, and the company has decided to restart its previous expansion project. The chairman and CEO, however, refused to disclose details of the investment and capacity targeted .

As the leading supplier of TFT-LCD glass substrates, Corning's market estimations have been winning intensive attentions. Earlier this year, the glass supplier forecast a 14% to 22% annual growth in glass substrate market, with such figures raised to 18% to 27%.

Currently, most panel makers begin with 0.5 mm thick substrates for portable devices, and then employ a costly thinning process that uses chemicals to reduce the thickness of the glass. Corning's proprietary fusion process forms thin glass of pristine surface quality, and the thin glass requires no additional panel thinning to achieve weight and thickness targets. Benefits include a lower total cost, a simplified supply chain, and reduced energy consumption.