Taiwan Today

A local shortage of glass substrates for thin-film transistor liquid crystal display panels could be on the cards following a production shutdown at Corning Inc.’s manufacturing facility in Taichung Oct. 19. According to sources familiar with the matter, overheated routers cut power to five of the company’s glass-melting tanks. Three of the furnaces are expected to come back online in December, with the remaining two set to fire up in January 2010. U.S.-based Corning notified local panel-makers that immediate supplies will not be affected, but warns to expect cutbacks from Oct. 26 onwards. The full extent of the incident will not be known until the company has completed its evaluations. James Flaws, vice chairman and chief financial officer of the world’s largest glass substrate supplier, said Corning originally expected its glass volume to increase by as much as 5 percent in the fourth quarter this year. A preliminary assessment now sees this remaining flat to slightly down. Local panel-makers said the shutdown would affect the output of some manufacturers in the fourth quarter, but was not as serious as if it had occurred in the third quarter when demand was stronger. “This is a neutral to favorable development amid the sector’s low season, as the supply disruption may help release some of the recent downward pressure on panel prices,” they said. Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp., one of the island’s largest panel-makers, is rumored to be organizing additional supplies from the world’s No. 2 glass substrate supplier, Japan-based Asahi Glass Co. Ltd. The company declined to comment on the move until Corning provides more details on its plans to resume production. (SFC-JSM)