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Nitto Denko to build plants in S Korea, Taiwan

TOKYO - Japan's Nitto Denko Corp plans to add a factory for processing and cutting polarizing film in both South Korea and Taiwan to meet rising local demand for the key liquid crystal display (LCD) component in these major LCD-producing countries.

The establishment of the two new plants is estimated to cost around 10 billion yen (US$92 million).

Nitto Denko already has one plant in each country.

The move is part of the company's plan to bolster its group production capacity for the LCD films by around 50% to about 64 million square meters in fiscal 2005.

Nitto Denko plans to allocate 31.5 billion yen ($290.7 million) of its 59 billion yen ($544.6 million) capital investment budget for the current fiscal year to achieve this goal.

The new South Korean factory is slated to begin operating in February 2005.

Its output is expected to be supplied to Samsung Electronics Co and LG Philips LCD Co for their production of personal computers and television sets.

The Taiwanese plant is scheduled to kick off production in January and sell its output to AU Optronics Corp and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp.

Nitto Denko holds about a 60% global market share for polarizing films.

The company's sales of the LCD films are forecast to rise 42% on-year to 198 billion yen ($1.8 billion).

(Asia Pulse/Nikkei)

Jul 14, 2004

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