Corning Timeline

The local plant becomes Corning Asahi.

1996: The plant expands to 600,000 square feet.

1998: A glut of picture tubes on the market spurs Corning to begin discussions with Asahi to buy it out.

1999: Discussions are halted after demand for glass and widescreen TVs picks up. Corning Asahi starts manufacturing 36-inch screens. The company remains Centre County's No. 1 private employer, with more than 1,100 workers.

2001: Increased foreign competition and low product demand force the plant to lay off workers. Between August and October, layoffs fluctuate between 200 and 450 workers to cut costs. In October, 20 percent of salaried positions are eliminated. The plant closes for eight weeks, from November through early January, when 750 workers are laid off.

2002: About 500 workers are called back in January, and 250 workers remain on layoff. The plant closes for a week in February to get rid of extra inventory. Corning goes through restructuring. By September, 45 salaried positions are cut and the plant is closed temporarily. Standard & Poor's rates Corning Inc. as the fifth-worst-performing stock on the S&P 500 for 2001, down 83 percent.

February 2003: A temporary layoff affects 400 employees.

April 15, 2003: Corning Asahi officials tell the 1,000 plant employees that the plant will close permanently by June 30 and that they will all lose their jobs. At the time, the plant is Centre County's biggest industrial manufacturer, with a $31 million annual payroll.

April 20, 2003: The first 350 layoffs. Another 150 people laid off by May 1.

May 9, 2003: Gov. Ed Rendell visits the Corning plant and announces that the state will provide $500,000 to help retrain plant employees.

June 10, 2003: Corning Inc. says it has agreed to sell all production equipment in the East College Avenue plant to Henan Anyang, China's largest maker of TV glass. While refusing to divulge the sale price, Corning says the cash would offset a "significant portion" of the $40 million to $65 million cost of closing the plant.

June 15, 2003: Production at the plant ceases.

September 2003: Forty engineers from China begin mapping hundreds of tons of machinery to prepare it to be shipped to China and reassembled in Henan province.

December 2003: Workers begin breaking down the equipment in the plant. The Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County hires a consultant from Georgia to analyze the area's markets, work force and resources to help find a strategy for marketing the Corning plant.

February 2004: About 60 percent of equipment is packed and loaded onto cargo ships bound for China.

October 2004: The shipment to China complete, Corning Inc. begins a six-month project to demolish the furnace end of its idle picture-tube factory to make the plant more marketable.

February 2005: The Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County says the Corning plant has been sold.