NEG (Nippon Electric Glass), a Japanese LCD glass substrate manufacturer, has its production base in Japan come to halt due to a power outage, and it is reported that many of its production lines have been damaged with the recent power outrage.
According to the Nikkei, NEG has stopped production of LCD glass substrates from its fab located in the Shiga Prefecture since December 10. It is reported that many of its production lines at the fab have been damaged due to a power outage that occurred in the early morning of December 10 and that it is difficult to estimate the exact timing when the damaged lines will be back normal.
The company has yet to state the exact cause of the outage. It plans to investigate the situation and resume operation of damaged equipment one by one.
It currently manufactures LCD glass substrates from two of its fabs in Japan and a fab from South Korea and a fab from China. Its fab that faced the outage is responsible for about 30% of the entire production of LCD glass substrates. With the power outage, the company is looking at possible setbacks to its entire production schedule and deliveries to its customers.
The company owns about 20% of the market share of the global LCD glass substrate market and it is seen as the top three LCD glass substrate manufacturer along with Corning Precision Materials and Asahi Glass. It supplies its glass substrates to LG Display and AUO and Innolux based in Taiwan. Some believe that the power outage will also have an impact on schedules of NEG’s customers’ LCD panel production.
For LG Display, the recent power outage will not have much impact on its supply and demand situation of LCD glass substrates as it can continue to receive glass substrates from NEG’s inventory and it also has other glass substrate supplies in addition to NEG.
“Because we have a wide supply chain of glass substrates, we will not face a huge issue with production of LCD panels.” said one LG Display official.
Staff Reporter Yun, Heeseok | pioneer@etnews.com