Asian manufacturers continue to rapidly beef up their TFT-LCD production capacity with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd being the latest to announce a new production line at its Ishikawa plant at a cost of 32bn yen ($300m). Construction will start this month with the line going into production next August making both TFT-LCD monitors and TFT-LCD panels for use in large-size TV sets.
It is also planning additional production lines which will start operations in 2001, with the details to be finaliszed by the middle of next year. NEC Akita Ltd has also announced it will increase production of liquid-crystal panels by about 8% to 125,000 14-inch panels a month from next month following a 4bn yen ($38m) upgrading of its existing lines. Last week NEC Corp and Mitsubishi Electric Corp announced that they are to set up a 50:50 joint venture to consolidate their production of computer monitors and LCD panels.
