Economy

Localized LCD plates to claim 60% market

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-07 17:06

Work has started on three production facilities for the fifth-generation liquid crystal display (LCD) glass plates in Zhangjiagang, a coastal city in eastern China's Jiangsu province, a company source confirmed Tuesday.

The project will contribute to localization of the state-of-the-art LCD glass plate, according to Xing Daoqin, general manager of Irico Group, which is China's leading color tube manufacturer based in Xianyang in the northwestern province of Shaanxi.

The project will cost approximately 1.8 billion yuan ($263.5 million) and cover 1.31 hectares. Upon completion, the three facilities will be able to produce 1.54 million 5th-generation LCD glass plates a year, with an estimated annual output value at 800 million yuan.

The Irico Group independently developed production technology for the 5th-generation LCD glass plate and build China's first production facility of the important material for LCDs in September 2008. The move broke monopoly of foreign products on the Chinese market.

In addition to the three facilities under construction, the group is planning to build several other production lines of the 5th-generation LCD glass plate in Xianyang and Hefei of eastern China's Anhui province. These projects will reach their respective annual production capacity in 2011, according to Xing.

By then, Xing said, domestically-made products will make up 60 percent of the 5th-generation LCD glass plates sold on the Chinese market.