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Samsung Electronics and Japan¡¯s Sony will continue their cooperation in producing liquid crystal display panels that started with their seventh-generation production line.
Samsung Electronics said Monday it signed a letter of intent with Sony to jointly produce eighth-generation LCD panels.
The two companies will invest US$2 billion in their partnership S-LCD and produce 50,000 sheets of motherglass a month starting in the fall next year. The new motherglass measures 2,200x2,500 mm and thus yields eight 46-inch panels.
Cooperation is seen as being in the best interest of both electronics giants. The partnership in the seventh-generation line has helped Samsung Electronics consolidate its status as the world¡¯s no. 1 LCD maker by ensuring a steady source of demand, while Sony benefited from the deal to re-emerge as a premium brand in the home appliances market.
The two companies originally set up S-LCD by investing W2.1 trillion (US$2.1 billion). Samsung generates more than 1 million 40-inch LCD panels a month at seventh-generation lines including the S-LCD plant.
The deal is tipped to intensify competition among South Korea, China and Japan, where both Japan¡¯s Sharp and South Korea¡¯s LG Philips LCD are aiming for the lead. Sharp will become the first to start mass production at its own eighth-generation line in Kameyama in the second half of this year. LG Philips LCD has also started building an eighth-generation facility, as has CMO of Taiwan with a goal to start operations in May 2008.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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