Asahi Glass Co Ltd said on Thursday it planned to invest 18 billion yen ($153 million) to boost its capacity to make glass used for liquid crystal displays (LCDs) in an effort to meet growing demand.
Japan's biggest maker of sheet glass said it planned to spend 13 billion yen to build a thin film transistor (TFT) LCD plant in Taiwan, which is due to begin construction around July and start mass-production in September 2004."Presently the demand for TFT-LCD panels is exceeding our growth estimates thanks to panels related to PCs and televisions, and we expect total demand to rise by more than 25 percent on an annual basis," said Asahi Glass in a statement.
The company also plans to spend five billion yen to establish a new line at its Kansai plant in Japan to polish and shape large-style, LCD-use glass.
The new line will start production in January.