Soaring demand for flat-panel televisions is driving up shares of Corning, which first devised a way of making unvaryingly flat, ultra-thin glass in the 1960s.
It was an invention before its time, and it is finally blossoming into a high-growth engine.The maker of optical fiber, glass products and industrial materials expects global demand for liquid-crystal-display glass to nearly triple to one-point-four (b) billion square feet in 2007 from 500 (m) million square feet in 2004.For the first time, more flat-panel televisions than conventional cathode-ray-tube T-V's were sold in Japan in 2005.Analyst David Naranjo of market research firm Display-Search predicts as many as 38 (m) million L-C-D T-V's will be shipped worldwide this year, up from 20 million in 2005.
Shares of Corning have surged more than 20 percent this month, peaking at a 52-week high of $25.05 during heavy trading Wednesday.