Corning to Invest $795 Million in LCD Glass Manufacturing Facility at Sharps Gen 10 Plant

Corning Inc. has approved a five-year capital expenditure plan of $795 million to co-locate a glass manufacturing facility at Sharp Corp.’s plant in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, reports the Society for Information Display. This is Cornings first major co-location with a customer.

Cornings investment will be incurred over a five-year period, with an initial capital expenditure of $400 million in 2008, according to a Corning press release. Glass-substrate production from the new facility is expected to meet Sharps plan to begin mass production of LCD panels for large televisions at its new fab by March 2010.

This investment will enable Corning to be the first manufacturer of TFT-grade Gen 10 substrates and the primary supplier of Sharps Gen 10 glass needs. At 2850 mm x 3050 mm, Gen 10 will be the largest LCD glass substrate available. Corning stated. The Gen 10 substrates manufactured at this facility will use Cornings EAGLE XG™ environmentally friendly glass composition.

In 2006, Corning signed a long-term supply agreement with Sharp for its Gen 8 fab.

We are pleased to continue our close relationship with Sharp through this arrangement, said James P. Clappin, president of Corning Display Technologies. The timing is right, since LCD televisions of increasingly larger size are quickly becoming a product of choice for consumers worldwide.

Previously, the company said it believes that LCD television penetration will reach 36% of the global TV market this year, rising to 47% in 2008. Over the past two years, the 40-inch-and-above LCD TV market has been a primary driver of growth for LCD glass demand. This growth in glass demand is expected to continue, in part driven by the emergence of 50-inch-and-larger LCD TVs.

Corning stated that it expects the overall LCD glass substrate market to reach 1.7 billion square feet in 2007 and to grow again by at least 400 million square feet in 2008.