On November 18, 2008, Corning lowered its outlook for Q4′08 and 2009 due to evaporating demand for LCD goods such as LCD monitors and LCD TVs. CFO James Flaws stated that demand for LCD glass has dropped considerably more than what the company expected just a few weeks ago. LCD panel producers have responded rather [...]

Corning announced its Q4′08 outlook and it is disappointing but not surprising. Corning expects Q4′08 revenues of US$1.2 billion to $1.3 billion with profits of 20-28 cents per share. Wall Street was expecting revenues of US$1.54 billion and profits of 42 cents per share. Quite a disparity! Corning also expects glass volume to be down [...]

During the Maxim Group Growth Conference on October 7, 2008 in New York City, Corning’s CFO James Flaws updated the company’s display glass market outlook for 2009. Flaws also announced Q3′08 glass volume shipments for the company’s wholly owned business and Samsung Corning Precision Glass (SCP). Q3′08 glass volume shipments grew 2% Q/Q, which was [...]

I am very tempted to simply shout out, “I told you so!” But, I won’t do that because I think Corning still doesn’t get it. Get this: “Corning said LCD TV sales remain strong in the U.S. as prices decline. But flat-panel electronics companies in Asia are cutting back on glass orders to work off [...]

On August 5, 2008, Asahi Glass Co. (AGC), the second largest supplier of LCD glass behind Corning, reported financial results for the first half of FY2008. Roughly, Corning holds a 60% market share in terms of LCD glass manufacturing capacity while AGC has about 20%. Others such as NEG and NHT split the rest. The [...]

Of course, Corning isn’t completely clueless, but according to some statements made by CFO Jim Flaws and CEO Wendell Weeks, Corning doesn’t seem to be taking into consideration current developments in the LCD supply chain when forecasting the rest of the year for LCD glass demand. Flaws was quite positive in his outlook for the [...]

Asahi Glass Co. (AGC) is the world’s second largest supplier of LCD glass, only behind Corning. There are three major centers of LCD production and they are located in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. AGC announced on July 18, 2008 that it would begin building a G8.5 (eight point five generation) LCD glass production facility [...]

Corning is the largest supplier of LCD glass, by a good margin. Corning has roughly 60% of the market cornered while runner up Asahi Glass Co. (AGC) has about a 20% share. During the Display Taiwan 2008 Business & Technology Forum in Taipei, Corning stated that global LCD demand will grow between 25% and 30% [...]

On May 16, 2008, Asahi Glass announced that it will acquire SCHOTT Processing Korea (SPK), which is a wholly owned Korean subsidiary of Germany’s SCHOTT AG. SPK polishes large glass substrates for TFT LCDs. The Korea Fair Trade Commission will need to approve the acquisition but once approved Asahi Glass will acquire all shares of [...]

The Carlyle Group plans to acquire a majority stake in NH Techno Glass (NHT), a manufacturer of LCD glass substrates. NHT is a 50-50 joint venture of HOYA Corporation and Nippon Sheet Glass Co. (NSG) and was established in 1991. NHT is headquartered in Yokohama, Japan with locations in Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea. HOYA [...]