LG Electronics said on Tuesday that more than half the air conditioner assembly lines at its Changwon plant have been running at full capacity around the clock this week to meet doubled demand due to the hot weather. Air conditioner sales by installments for the January-to-March quarter tripled from a year ago, LG said. The company believes that air conditioner sales will surpass W1 trillion (US$1=\938) for the first time this year. LG's previous record for air conditioner sales was W860.8 billion in 2005.

Some of the air conditioner assembly lines at Samsung Electronics' Gwangju plant have been operating a full-speed for 24 hours a day since June 9. "Usually demand for air conditioners begins to strengthen from the middle of June, but this year demand began swelling in May," Samsung said. Samsung is now coming up with contingency plans to meet the demand, such as putting additional workers on assembly lines. The company said its air conditioner sales from January to May doubled compared with the same period a year ago.

(englishnews@chosun.com )