Display panel production is booming, Samsung says

Samsung Electronics Co. said yesterday that it would raise this year’s target output of liquid crystal display panels that are 10 inches or larger by 8.8 percent. “With the global information technology industry having begun to recover in the latter half of the year, the demand for monitors, laptops and televisions has constantly risen,” a Samsung spokesman said. With the increase, Samsung’s output this year will reach 43.5 million panels; the group had previously planned for 40 million. In the third quarter, 11.7 million units of liquid crystal display panels will be manufactured, and in the fourth, 13.1 million, Samsung said. About 18.7 million units were sold in the first half of this year, while sales in the second half are expected to rise by 32.6 percent to 24.8 million. The total output for this year is expected to be 45 percent greater than that of last year. Samsung also said it would boost its monthly production of 40-inch panels to 200,000 units in October, when the first seventh-generation liquid crystal display panel facilities in Tangjung, South Chungcheong province, become fully operational. The firm’s second seventh-generation liquid crystal display panel manufacturing line will be put into service in the first six months of next year. Samsung Electronics predicts that it will create 191 million liquid crystal panels this year, having originally planned to make 179 million. The volume next year will also rise 23.6 percent from this year, to 236 million units. by Lee Chul-jae