“To accommodate increasing demand for plasma display panels LG will maximize its production efficiency, especially in the second half of the year.” according to Simon Kang, CEO of Digital Display Company at LG Electronics.

The improved 8-up processing will increase LG’s total capacity per month by 22 percent, from 360,000 to 440,000 panels, greater than the total capacity before the A1 line was shut down. LG’s strategy to raise efficiency entails increasing per-line capacity while closing older, less efficient lines. In addition, glass substrate sheets used for LG’s 8-up PDP production will be increased to 1,956 x 2,200 mm in size, compared to glass sheets of 1,956 x 1,650 mm in size used for 6-up processing.

LG also began mass production of 50-inch Full HD TVs last week. According to DisplaySearch, demand for plasma display panels is expected to continue to increase in 2007, from 2.3 million in the 1st quarter to 2.7 million in the 2nd quarter, 3.2 million in the 3rd quarter, and 4 million in the 4th quarter.