China to build $600 million LCD plant
By Reuters
news.com.com
Story last modified Mon Jul 25 18:11:00 PDT 2005
China will build a next-generation liquid crystal display plant--the nation's third--near Shanghai, with total investment to eventually reach as high as $6 billion, an official said on Monday.
The new plant, to be run by a company called Longteng, will be located in the city of Kunshan, about an hour from Shanghai, and will have an initial investment of about $600 million, said the official from the China Kunshan Economic & Technical Development Zone, where the factory will be located.
The plant, making state-of-the-art thin-film transistor LCDs (TFT-LCDs) used in big-screen TVs and computer monitors, will require an eventual investment of $5 billion to $6 billion he added, declining to name any overseas investors in the project.
Taiwanese media in April reported that Longteng--effectively a vehicle for investment in the new LCD plant--would receive technology from Japan and Taiwan, with Taiwan's Pou Chen as a possible investor. Pou Chen has already invested $12.5 million in a TFT-LCD panel component factory in Kunshan.
Previous Next Construction has already begun on the new Longteng plant, with the basic structure expected to be complete by the end of this month and initial production to start as soon as year's end.
The project's first phase will have a designed capacity of 90,000 panels per month.
The Kunshan zone estimates that investment on the core TFT-LCD production complex, along with supporting facilities, could reach $10 billion in three to five years, with annual output value reaching 100 billion yuan ($12.33 billion).
Longteng would join China's two existing TFT-LCD makers, one a Shanghai-based joint venture between SVA Group and Japan's NEC and the other operated by China-listed BOE Technology Group, which recently said it was also planning a listing in Hong Kong. |
