Korea's two electronic giants Samsung Electronics and LG Display, who are pushing ahead with the construction of their 8th-generation LCD panel production lines in China, will massively buy Korean LCD manufacturing equipment to furnish their soon-to-be-built LCD plants in China. Samsung Electronics and LG Display look to scale up the share of Korean LCD equipment-including plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) apparatus -up to 70 percent (in terms of value).
Samsung Electronics, the world's largest LCD TV maker, will raise their share of Korean-made equipment at their LCD panel plant in Suzhou by as much as 60 percent. This is up by 10 percent from the current 50 percent at its LCD panel production lines operating in S. Korea. LG Display, scheduled to build a LCD panel production line in Guangzhou, will follow suit by jacking up the percentage of Korean LCD equipment to 70 percent. The world's second-biggest LCD panel maker had already confirmed its intention to attain 70 percent as it placed orders for the construction of its second 8G plant, with the nickname ‘P8E,’ in S. Korea.
Taking into consideration the two electronic giants' investment scale, investments in Korean-made LCD equipment is projected to exceed KRW3 trillion. Some people even estimated that combined with orders-placed by Taiwanese, Japanese, and Chinese companies in mainland China for Korean LCD equipment, the overall investments in Korean LCD equipment could top KRW5 trillion. If the world's leading purveyors' LCD panels stock their LCD panel plants in China with more Korean-made equipment, other multinational companies' production plants, located in China, are more likely to use Korean equipment. The Ministry of Knowledge and Economy stated, “LCD panel production lines in Korea have already achieved 60 percent in equipment localization.”
The Ministry also expected that the large-scale investments in Korean LCD equipment, by Samsung Electronics and LG Display, would pave the way for small- and medium-sized LCD equipment suppliers to grow into large companies.
