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Also the Korean Plasma industry will increase their production |
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Monday, 11 February 2008 |
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| Korea’s Plasma TV industry is also increasing their PDP production, just like their Japanese colleagues, due to increasing demand. |
Last year, the country’s Plasma Display Panel (PDP) manufacturers went into the red, but that will change this year due to large-scale international sports events & the relatively weak performance of LCD televisions. Industry sources predict the flat TV manufacturers will make up for last year’s losses, according to Korea.net.
In the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, China’s demand for flat panel televisions is skyrocketing. Euro 2008, known to be more popular than the Soccer World Cup, will also boost flat panel TV sales in European countries, said the sources.
Although hit hard hit by the subprime mortgage crisis, the U.S. market is increasing flat TV orders in preparation for debut of digital broadcasting next year.
LCD, PDP’s rival product, could not meet rallying demand last year, which is expected to result in profits for PDP this year.
Running out of LCD panel supply, Korea’s 2 flat TV giants, Samsung & LG, have lately increased PDP production, according to industry sources.
The sources expected that global demand for flat screen televisions this year will jump 29% to 112 million units from 87 million in 2007. Demand for PDP module is expected to rise to 15.4 million units from 12.7 million last year.
LG Electronics & Samsung SDI this year will increase PDP module production by 100% and 70% to 6.5 million and 5.3 million units, respectively, sources from both companies said.
PDP sales were spectacular in the fourth quarter last year. Samsung SDI, helped by sales increases in all PDP models, earned 504 billion won in profits by selling a record 1.1 million units. LG’s profit from selling PDP televisions also increased by more than 40% year-on-year.
Samsung SDI plans to increase 50-inch PDP TV production up to 50% of all products & jump into the 32-inch PDP television market soon.
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