Enlivened TFT LCD industry to drive glass substrate production

摘要

Glass substrate suppliers in China are steadily expanding their production capacity in the face of a resurgent LCD industry, particularly TFT LCD.rnFor the past several years, foreign suppliers, including Corning in the US, and AGC and NEC in Japan, dominated the line as high technological costs hampered China makers.rnGlobal demand for TFT-LCD glass substrates in 2009 is estimated to reach nearly 154 million square meters. At about 10 percent annual growth rate, the world's total requirement will exceed 210 million square meters byrn2012. Given the current total global capacity of roughly 114 million square meters, a shortfall of more than 40 million square meters is expected. Glass substrates make up 7 percent of materials spending for TFT LCDs. Fifth generation or 5G glass substrates and below continue to be the mainstream, accounting for 79 percent of total demand last year.