All Set for 8th Generation Production Line
All Set for 8th Generation Production Line
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  • 승인 2006.08.01 12:01
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Interview Highlight Samsung aims to stay global No.1 through stable mass production system for LCD TV panels Samsung Electronics, the world's largest provider of TFT-LCD panels, plans to secure a stable mass production system for LCD TV panels in order to meet rising demand. "At its 7th generation Line 7-1, Samsung now can produce 75,000 substrates per month. However, we will expand the production capacity to 90,000 substrates by early next year," said Suck Joon-hyung, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics. At the same time, Samsung plans to expand the production capacity of its Line 7-2 from the present 45,000 substrates per month to 45,000 substrates by the latter half of this year, he said. Combining Line 7-1 and Line 7-2, Samsung will have the production capacity of 180,000 substrates per month or 2.16 million substrates a year, said Suck. It means that Samsung is able to produce 1.44 million panels for 40-inch TVs per month, or 17.28 million panels a year. It also indicates that the Samsung's production will account for about 24 percent of the world's total LCD TV panel shipments in 2007 standing at 72.52 million based on the survey of the Display Search. Accordingly, Samsung Electronics can produce onefourth of the world's total LCD TV panels independently by 2007, Suck said. Standardization of large TV size Samsung Electronics is a leading company in the supply of 40-inch and 46-inch TV LCD panels. Its efforts to standardize LCD TV size started from October 2003 when the company began the construction of the 7th-generation Line 7-1 and continue through the 8th-generation mass production plan it recently announced. It has already equipped itself with a stable mass production system to meet rising demand for 40-inch LCD TV panels or larger ones. Based on such stable production capacity, Samsung has been leading a standardization movement by securing such excellent customers, including Sony, Suck said. The key reasons behind Samsung's success of standardization of the 40-inch panel for LCD TV were its exact future-forecasting ability and bold investment, he said. "Samsung will also carry out investment in the 8thgeneration LCD without fail, dominating the 50-inch LCD TV market also," he said. Ways to secure global competitiveness In the world's LCD market, fierce competition is under way among Korean companies, which hope to keep the leading position, Japanese enterprises, which are trying to recoup the top rank they had lost, Taiwan firms, which are expanding their market volume rapidly under the government's active support, and Chinese companies, which newly leaped into the stiff competition. In the future, LCD companies are expected to be classified into three categories according to their technology level. Currently, Korean companies are securing the top position in terms of large-size LCD technology and production capacity. Meanwhile, Japanese companies that commercialized LCD for the first time in the world possess merits in the small and medium-size LCD field. Although Samsung engaged in the small and medium- size LCD field in 2001, it has been catching up with their Japanese counterparts at a rapid pace and is developing new competitive technology, he said. Taiwan and Chinese companies have been still falling behind Korean companies in terms of new technology development and the number of patent registration, but they have been growing at a rapid pace. Samsung plans to create high value added-oriented new markets and products through active investment and pursue differentiated cost competitiveness in the future, he said. Cooperation with Sony Samsung Electronics sought a joint venture with Sony to keep the lead in the rapidly growing LCD TV industry. Under the joint venture, Samsung has secured a stable buyer of LCD panels for TV and Sony can purchase LCD TV panels at a proper time. With the joint venture between the world's No. 1 LCD supplier Samsung Electronics and the traditional TV superpower Sony, the two companies are able to lead the standardization of the world's LCD size. The joint venture, named S-LCD Corp., produces the 7th-generation glass substrates. Its CEO is Chang Won-ki and CFO is Hitomi Masatoshi. Top managers of Samsung Electronics and Sony are participating in the directors' meeting of S-LCD as members, extending full support for the successful joint venture, he explained. The two companies had earlier forecast that the market demand for 40-inch LCD TV or larger ones would soar from 2005 and their prediction hit the mark, said Suck. Accordingly, they invested actively in the 7th-generation panels, surpassing the 6ht-generation and could gain good results, he said. Both Samsung and Sony appraised S-LCD as a successful joint venture. S-LCD started the 7thgeneration LCD line on April 19 last year for the first time in the LCD industry and its capacity reached 60,000 substrates in October in the same year. Based on such favorable results, the two companies decided to make additional investments in the Line 7 and the 8th-generation joint project. Infrastructure of R&D manpower in LCD field As fostering manpower is the key for the development of the LCD industry, Samsung concluded cooperation agreements with prominent universities, including the University of Kent, Pohang University of Science and Technology and KAIST for securing talents. By actively securing and fostering excellent manpower, Samsung has been maintaining its top competitiveness in terms of the next-generation display technology, technology for mass production and cost saving. Samsung, which now has 300 researchers with doctoral degrees and 700 with master's degrees in the LCD field, is planning to expand the professional manpower further. At the same time, Samsung has been actively supporting its subcontractors to help them strengthen international competitiveness through financial assistance for localization of equipment and parts and facility investment.

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