Corning will postpone the production of its new plant in Taichung, Taiwan from the third quarter to the fourth quarter of 2005 because of the flood caused by the heavy rain in July. This delay will lead to a sustained constraint on the supply of large-scale glass substrates and thus suppress the mass production of the plants manufacturing new generation panels. However, it may stimulate the revival of the panel industry and maintain the price of panels.

 

According to Corning, the establishment of the Taichung facility is going well and will begin initial manufacturing as scheduled by the end of 2005. Besides the Taichung facility aiming at providing large-scale glass substrates, Corning also keeps enhancing the production efficiency of Tainan facility. Since the production of Corning's Taichung facility is twice as much as that of its Tainan facility, the production delay will create tight supply.