S Korea Cheil to begin selling LGP from new unit next week

20 August 2004 00:47  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (CNI)--South Korea’s Cheil Industries will begin selling products from its new 5000 tonne/year light guide panel (LGP) line at Yeochun next week, a company official told CNI on Friday.

The new line, which was started last month, doubles the company’s LGP capacity to 10 000 tonne/year. LGPs are produced from poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) resin and used in the production of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels.

Production from the new Won3.5bn ($3m/Euro2.5m) line will be sold to Samsung Electronics Corp (SEC), a major producer of LCDs. SEC and Cheil are both part of the Samsung group of companies.

The official said that Cheil was not worried about the developing oversupply situation in the LCD market as SEC was using the new line as a captive producer and would be gradually phasing out its LGP imports.

Currently, about 80% of SEC’s LGP requirements are sourced from Japan.

The official said that the company was planning to build a third 5000 tonne/year LGP line at the same site, although the timing of the venture has not been decided.

Strong demand growth for LCD monitors and devices has been a large contributor to rising Asian demand for methyl methacrylate (MMA) and polycarbonate (PC) resin, which is used to make diffusers for backlight units for large-sized LCDs.

By: Chris Myrick
+44 208 652 3214

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