Glass firm says LCD demand cracking on

Corning said it thinks the LCD glass market will grow between 40 and 60 per cent in 2005, with a CAGR of 40 per cent right through until 2007.The president of Corning, Peter Volanakis, said that the majority of recent growth in LCD glass has been for notebook computers and desktop monitors, but claimed LCD TVs will be the "third wave" of glass demand.According to Corning, LCD TVs represented five per cent of all televisions sold in 2004 and will reach 10 per cent this year.By 2007, he thinks that LCD TVs may represent 21 per cent of goggle box sales.

But he warned investors not to look just on sales of TVs in the USA, but to watch global market demand and trends. Seventy five per cent of the TVs in the world are sold outside North America.

He thinks that LCD TVs smaller than 40 inches will be the primary alternative because of a balance of form, function and cost. Eighty five per cent of LCD glass Corning supplied last year was used for notebooks, for mobile phones, for desktop monitors and for other devices like digicams and the like.

Samsung recently rolled out generation seven of its LCD panels, but Corning is already developing generation eight - which the firm said will allow the manufacturers to cut down on production costs.

So Corning is very optimistic indeed about LCD TVs. This somewhat contradicts market analysts who wonder just who is going to buy all of this glass, and wait for prices to continue to tumble