As a hedge against a future panel oversupply, Corning has decided to relight its inactive LCD glass furnaces in Taiwan, according to Peter Bocko, chief technology officer for East Asia, who spoke at the Society for Information Display conference. Corning had closed 50% of its glass capacity in the second part of 2008 when panel inventories increased, but started to relight glass furnaces in Taiwan and Harrodsburg, Kentucky, US, in May 2009. Several of Corning's top Taiwanese customers decreased their capacity by 30-40% in late 2008 and have, only recently, started to increase it again to 70-80%. Accortding to industry officials, South Korea, where Corning has an LCD glass joint venture with Samsung, registered a drop in capacity at LCD plants less severe at about 70% and has since risen back to more than 90%.
