With an aim to tap the surging demand for LCD TVs, Samsung and Sony jointly announced on April 25 that they will establish a new 8G TFT-LCD (Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display) production line through their joint venture S-LCD, Nikkei Electronics Asia reported. Total investment in this new facility is valued at approximately 1.8 trillion Won (US$1.8 billion; US$1=1,008.7 Won).

According to the same report, the new facility, to be located at S-LCD's Tangjeong Complex in Korea, is slated to kick off production in the second quarter of 2009, with a projected capacity of 60,000 units per month initially. TFT-LCD panels produced at this new facility will be shipped to S-LCD major clients Samsung and Sony. On the same premises, S-LCD already has one 8G and one 7G lines.

Meanwhile, Sony also plans to expand the TFT-LCD TV production capacity at its Slovakia plant in Nitra - which began operations in August 2007 and started mass production in October of the same year - to four million units by year-end 2008, Taiwan's Commercial Times reported. Up until the end of March 2008, the Nitra plant has produced a total of two million LCD TVs. At present, Sony has another European LCD TV plant in Barcelona, Spain.