AUO to start equipment installation at sixth-generation TFT-LCD panel plant in central Taiwan

Taipei, May 31, 2004 (CENS)--AU Optronics Corp. (AUO), Taiwan's No. 1 thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panel maker, will start installation of first-batch equipment at its sixth-generation panel plant in Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP) in mid-July.

AUO said that the new sixth-generation panel facility is scheduled to start mass production in early first quarter next year, making it the world's third such facility trailing Sharp's in Japan and LG.Philips LCD's in South Korea.

AUO claimed that the mass production date of its sixth-generation facility would be only three months later than LG.Philips, representing that competition among makers in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in the LCD TV panel market will begin at a similar starting line.

AUO pointed out that the new sixth-generation panel plant will include a sixth-generation panel and a color filter production line, as well as an in-house rear-section module assembly workshop. AUO estimated that it will inject capital funds of over NT$65 billion (US$1.94 billion at US$1: NT$33.5) this year into the new plant in CTSP .

AUO said that the sixth-generation panel plant is constructed on a 20-hectare land at the company's 60-hectare plant campus in CTSP, using a total of 140,000 tons of construction steel, which can be used to construct about 20 La Toue Eiffels, making it one of the largest plant construction projects on the island.

Industry sources said that the world's tallest building, the Taipei 101 Financial Building in Taiwan, used only about 80,000 tons of steel, or around 60% of that of AUO's plant.

A local TFT-LCD equipment supplier said that AUO will start installing relevant equipment at the sixth-generation plant by first introducing the Nikon exposure machine, and other important equipment, such as the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) equipment and others, will be installed in August and the following months.

According to AUO's equipment installation schedule, industry sources said, the company is expected to have a monthly capacity of 50,000 substrates in the first quarter next year. The sources said that LG.Philips' same-generation panel plant is scheduled to enter the trial-production stage in the fourth quarter this year.

A senior industry analyst said that products turned out by sixth-generation panel plants can be economically cut into 32- and 37-inch LCD TV panels. The analyst claimed that some other local panel makers, including Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Ltd. (CPT) and Quanta Display Inc., will also move to install equipment at their scheduled sixth-generation panel facilities starting from the middle of this year. That, he added, implies the formal kick-off of competition between local and South Korea makers in the LCD TV panel market.