Corning Continues Expansion in LCD Glass Capacity, Begins Construction of Melting Facility in Taiwan.Business Editors CORNING, N.Y. & TAINAN, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 5, 2003 Taiwan Plant to be Corning's Fourth Fully-Integrated LCD Glass Plant to Meet Rapid Worldwide Growth in Demand Corning Incorporated Corning Incorporated NYSE: GLW is an American manufacturer of glass, ceramics and related materials, primarily for industrial and scientific applications. The company was known until 1989 as Corning Glass Works. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :GLW GLW Glasgow Airport (UK) GLW Gross Laden Weight GLW Good Lady Wife (Australia) ) today officially celebrated the expansion of its liquid crystal display liquid crystal display (LCD) Optoelectronic device used in displays for watches, calculators, notebook computers, and other electronic devices. Current passed through specific portions of the liquid crystal solution causes the crystals to align, blocking the passage of light. (LCD) glass manufacturing facility in the Tainan Science-based Industrial Park, Taiwan. The ceremony marked the start of construction of Corning's LCD glass melting facility in Taiwan, as announced by the company on November 5, 2002. With the addition of the Taiwan melting capability, Corning will become the only glass substrate supplier with four, fully-integrated manufacturing facilities located in all three of the key LCD-producing regions: Japan, Korea and Taiwan. The addition of melting to the Tainan facility is a key part of Corning's long term strategy to significantly increase its LCD glass manufacturing capacity to keep pace with the growing needs of its customers worldwide. By early 2004, the Tainan facility's melting will be operational and is expected to produce glass substrates to supply the growing number of customers installing fifth generation LCD fabrication fabrication (fab´rikā´sh  n),n the construction or making of a restoration. lines. As a world leading supplier of active matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCD (Active Matrix LCD) See active matrix. ) glass substrates for flat panel desktop monitors, notebook computers, LCD-TVs and consumer electronics products, Corning's Display Technologies business revenue is expected to grow by 20% to 40% annually through 2006, with much of this growth centered in its Taiwan operations. "Corning is a worldwide leader in the growing display technologies industry," said Nitin Kulkarni, president of Corning Display Technologies Taiwan. "Our investment in Taiwan represents our commitment to the needs and demands of our global customers and ensures a constant, reliable supply of Corning's glass substrates with industry-leading attributes." By adding melting capability, Corning's Taiwan plant becomes the company's fourth fully integrated manufacturing facility, joining plants in Shizuoka, Japan and two Samsung Corning Precision (SCP (1) (Service Control Point) A node in an SS7 telephone network that provides an interface to databases, which may reside within the SCP computer or in other computers. ) plants in Gumi and Asan, South Korea. SCP is Corning's equity venture with Samsung. In addition, Corning also operates a glass melting and forming plant in Harrodsburg, Kentucky Harrodsburg, in Mercer County, Kentucky, is the oldest city in Kentucky. The population was 8,014 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Mercer CountyGR6. . The company is simultaneously continuing capacity expansions at both the Shizuoka and Harrodsburg facilities, which are expected to be operational this year. Ongoing capacity expansions at SCP's Asan plant will also continue to be brought on line, as the company grows to keep pace with the high customer demand of the LCD industry in South Korea. "Corning's leading market position is directly attributable to our combination of customer partnerships, technical capability and manufacturing excellence," said James P. Clappin, general manager of Corning Display Technologies. "Our proprietary fusion technology is fully scalable to fifth and sixth generation and larger sheet sizes. We are currently producing glass that is approaching three square meters with what is considered to be the highest surface quality in the industry. We've perfected our fusion process, so that when our customers are ready to move to even larger glass substrates with tighter quality specifications - Corning plans to supply it." The rapid growth of the flat panel display A thin display screen for computer and TV usage. The first flat panels appeared on laptop computers in the mid-1980s, and the LCD technology became the standard. Stand-alone LCD screens became available for desktop computers in the mid-1990s and exceeded sales of CRTs for the first time industry, coupled with the movement to larger glass sheets by LCD manufacturers, has continued to increase customer demand for LCD glass substrates year-over-year. As noted by Peter F. Volanakis, president of Corning Technologies, at the company's annual investment conference in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. on February 7, Corning expects over 70% of all desktop computer monitors to be LCD by 2006. Glass demand in Taiwan's AMLCD industry, which is focused on large displays used in LCD desktop monitors, notebook computers, and LCD-TVs, has more than doubled in volume over last year. About Corning Incorporated Established in 1851, Corning Incorporated (www.corning.com) creates leading-edge technologies that offer growth opportunities in markets that fuel the world's economy. Corning manufactures optical fiber, cable and photonic products in its Telecommunications segment. Corning's Technologies segment manufactures high-performance display glass, and products for the environmental, life sciences and semiconductor markets. Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve a variety of business risks and other uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include the possibility of changes or fluctuations in global economic conditions; currency exchange rates; product demand and industry capacity; competitive products and pricing; availability and costs of critical components and materials; new product development and commercialization; order activity and demand from major customers; capital spending capital spending Spending for long-term assets such as factories, equipment, machinery, and buildings that permits the production of more goods and services in future years. by larger customers in the telecommunications industry and other business segments; the mix of sales between premium and non-premium products; possible disruption in commercial activities due to terrorist activity and armed conflict; ability to obtain financing and capital on commercially reasonable terms; acquisition and divestiture The breakup of AT&T. By federal court order, AT&T divested itself on January 1, 1984 of its 23 operating companies, which became known as the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs). activities; the level of excess or obsolete inventory Obsolete Inventory Term that refers to inventory that is at the end of its product life cycle and has not seen any sales or usage for a set period of time usually determined by the industry. This type of inventory has to be written down and can cause large losses for a company. ; the ability to enforce patents; product and components performance issues; and litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. . These and other risk factors are identified in Corning's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the day that they are made, and Corning undertakes no obligation to update them in light of new information or future events. |
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