Japanese Asahi Glass recently announced that it has planned to build a new PDP glass substrate factory in Osaka, Japan, for about 32 billion Yen, with initial investment approximately 15 billion Yen. The new facility is expected to boost the company's PDP glass substrate annual production by 20%, and is slated to begin construction in August 2006 and mass production in May 2007.

Asahi also stated that it will establish a PDP substrate furnace and a TFT-LCD substrate furnace in Korea, with an investment of 11 billion Yen and 15 billion Yen, respectively. The PDP furnace is slated to start mass production in August 2007, but Asahi did not yet reveal details about the plant's expected annual production capacity. The TFT-LCD furnace is expected to begin mass production in the second half of 2007, aiming at an annual production capacity of five million square meters.