03-12-2010

By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter (Korea Times)

LG Display, the world’s second-largest maker of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, said it will invest 1.49 trillion won (about $1.33 billion) to establish a new line at its LCD cluster in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

“To actively respond to the rapidly growing market for large-sized LCD panels, LG Display has decided increase investment,” the company said in a regulatory filing, Friday.

A company spokeswoman, Claire Ohm, said the new line, which is optimized to produce 32-, 47- and 55-inch LCD panels for televisions will start the operation in the first half of this year.

“The markets for LED-backlit LCD TVs, three-dimensional (3D) TVs and other technology products are beginning to gain traction. We also have a positive mid-term outlook for panel-embedded products in China and other emerging markets,” she said.

Ohm added that the company’s decision to establish a new line is unrelated to whether it gets the green light from Beijing for its plans to construct an LCD plant in China.

Last year, LG Display inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the municipal government of Guangzhou on a plan to set up a $4 billion, 8-generation LCD panel production line in the city.

The filing came a few hours after its CEO Kwon Young-soo told reporters that the flat-screen affiliate of LG Electronics was mulling over investing more in its Paju LCD cluster.

Kwon attended the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting on the sidelines.

The chief executive said he expects two out of six companies that have already applied to build LCD plants in China to get the “go-ahead” signal from Beijing to build a new plant.

Beijing has delayed permitting companies to build plants as Chinese regulators had expressed worries that too many LCD plants would do little to help boost its local flat-panel industry and cause the industry’s oversupply.

yckim@koreatimes.co.kr

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2010/03/129_62260.html