Several glass suppliers have recently announced plans to establish new production facilities in China as the country is expected to become the world's largest producer of LCD panels by 2017. US-based Corning announced in June that it plans to build a new 8.5-generation (8.5G) LCD glass substrate processing plant in Chongqing, southwest China - the company's second such facility in the country. Meanwhile, Japanese company, NEG plans for a new plant in Nanjing. The US$ 45M project is scheduled to begin production in the first quarter 2016 with a planned output of 1.8M substrates/pa. the world's largest glassmaker, Japan's Asahi Glass, signed a US$ 500M deal with local authorities in Huizhou, southern China (Guandong Province) last April to establish a glass substrate production line there. Another such project is also in the pipeline, with Irico Display Devices set to become the first Chinese company to produce 8.5G glass substrates. It has also committed around US$ 50.77M to the construction of a processing plant that will have an annual capacity of 950,000 units. According to Len Li, a researcher at Sigmaintell Consulting, the new plants will help reduce costs for Chinese panel makers, but local glass companies will face greater competition. "Foreign companies are choosing to set up 8.5G glass substrate production at this time to secure their market share before Chinese companies can acquire the manufacturing technology." It is projected that China will become the world's largest LCD panel producer by 2017, accounting for a third of global output, particularly as investment in glass substrate production facilities in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan has slowed dramatically.
