LCD glass panel Market Consolidation

Japan's Sony Corp and Sharp Co announced the day before, will set up a joint venture company production of LCD panels, and signed a non binding memorandum, SONY shares of SHARP is building in Osaka, the world's first tenth generation motherglass LCD panel factory, the shareholding ratio of 34%, according to SHARP announced in July last year, the construction cost of 380 billion factory the yen ($3 billion 500 million) estimates, SONY's investment of approximately $1 billion 200 million. The two sides will further consultations in June 30, 2008 before the establishment of joint ventures signed legally binding documents, the plant will also become an independent production and sales of large size LCD panels and components of the joint venture in April 2009. The partnership will enable SONY to reduce dependence on the Korean panel, but also to reduce the financial pressure on SHARP to build a new plant. The new plant is expected to begin production in March 2010, the initial monthly production will be set at 36 thousand days after the LCD panel, will be increased to 72 thousand. Each piece can be cut out 15 sets of 40 inches or 8 inch LCD TV panel 50. Some analysts said that the vast majority of SONY's future demand may be taken from the new plant. SHARP LCD TV technology gradually opened, marking the end of the original SHARP LCD panel production is not exported era. SHARP regard to strengthen cooperation with other tablet giants way to further enhance the development of LCD technology and competitive advantage in the global TV market. At present, the LCD panel 60% - 70% SONY is from S LCD (2004, SONY and Samsung jointly established the LCD panel manufacturers purchase) and Samsung Electronics, the remaining 30% - 40% was purchased from Taiwan LCD panel business. But cooperation in SONY and SHARP, Samsung will have to find another partner. According to the Chosun Ilbo reported that Samsung has said the person in charge of the relevant aspects, and now the strong demand for the panel market, the company will not be a problem in the short term, but two or three years later, it is necessary to find another buyer. However, SONY President Nakahachi Ryoji said at a press conference, the cooperation with SHARP is to ensure the stability of the panel supply, hoping to grab the global LCD TV market share of 15% to 20% in the year 2008. Samsung and SHARP joint venture with SONY LCD TV is the cause of the two wheels". 2008 reached an alliance with SHARP, SONY increased the selectivity in the LCD panel procurement and product diversification, to seek greater returns. At the end of December 2007, foreign media reports, Hitachi (HitachiLtd.) and the original Toshiba Alliance (ToshibaCorp.) is planning an alliance with SHARP, from the beginning of fiscal year 2009 to SHARP procurement 40-60 inch LCD panel, in order to reduce the purchasing cost of LCD tv. In addition, can also reduce the supply of the liquid crystal panel IPS Alpha Technology company (Toshiba, Matsushita, Hitachi LCD panel production enterprises joint venture) dependence. Matsushita (Matsushita ELectric Industri alCo.) also plans to invest about 300 billion yen to build a new factory in Hyogo LCD panel. Hitachi will stop production of panels, to purchase panasonic. According to this situation, in the past there have been 5 companies in Japan to produce LCD TV panel, the formation of the basic integration of SHARP and Panasonic motors camp two. The re division of integration of the LCD industry market is because the LCD TV prices fell by 20% to 30% each year, accounting for LCDTV LCD panel unit cost of about 70%, which form a great pressure on the price of panel manufacturers. Moreover, the Japanese LCD producers in Taiwan, under the pressure of low-cost production, faced with more heavy cost competition. As a result, Japanese LCD producers must expand operations to reduce costs. In recent years, due to the CRT display market has been shrinking year by year, replace the CRT display technology LCD better, clearer. Last year, CRT display market share has shrunk to less than 30%. Accordingly, TFT-LCD shipments surged 57%. According to market research firm Display Search estimates, LED shipments last year will be 40 thousand square meters to 100 thousand square meters this year, growth will reach 150% LED display. In addition to TV, notebook panels using LED backlight product proportion is currently less than 6%, is expected to reach 20% this year, in 2011 reached more than 100%.

Source: China Glass Network