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SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930.KS), the world's second-largest maker of large liquid crystal displays (LCD), said on Monday it had agreed with Japan's Sony Corp. (6758.T) to jointly build a new $2 billion LCD line.
S-LCD Corp., an existing LCD joint venture between Samsung and Sony, will build the "eighth-generation" LCD line with an eye to a greater share in the fast-growing LCD TV market, both companies said in a statement.
"Samsung will target further business expansion in the LCD panel market for LCD TVs and Sony will continue to proactively focus on cost-competitive and high-quality large screen products targeting an expansion of its LCD TV business," they said in the statement.
The new line will begin mass production in the autumn of 2007 and have an output capacity of 50,000 units per month. It will adopt a motherglass size of approximately 2.2 metres by 2.5 metres, the companies said.
Sony and Samsung formed a $2 billion joint venture in 2004 to produce LCD TV panels using the "seventh-generation" technology. S-LCD began shipments of panels in April last year and has been ramping up output to meet fast-growing demand for LCD TVs.
Shares in Samsung Electronics ended down 1.83 percent at 642,000 won, underperforming the wider market's (^KS11 - news) 0.29 percent decline. Sony shares fell 1.23 percent to 5,630 yen, also lagging the Nikkei's (^N225 - news) 0.61 percent drop.
Shares in Samsung and bigger rival LG.Philips LCD Co. Ltd. (034220.KS) fell after Taiwan's AU (2409.TW) said on Friday it would acquire smaller rival Quanta Display (3012.TW).
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