| Jul. 7, 2005 |
Toray to Build Additional Production Facility for Photosensitive Paste for PDPs |
| Toray Industries, Inc. today announced that it
decided to build additional production facility for photosensitive paste for
plasma display panels, or PDPs. Toray plans to construct a new building and production
facility for the paste in the vicinity of its Shiga Plant in order to meet the
demand expected to be generated by a new PDP plant being built by Matsushita
PDP Company Ltd. (MPDP)(*1), a joint venture with Matsushita Electric Industrial
Co., Ltd. The plant is the third one for MPDP and expected to be the world’s
largest of its kind. The additional facility will have a production capacity
of 100 tons a month, boosting the total annual capacity to 2,160 tons (180 tons
per month) from the current 960 tons (80 tons per month). MPDP aims to bring
forward the start of operation of the new PDP plant to September from the previously
planned November and Toray will start supplying the photosensitive paste from
September. The PDP market is expected to expand rapidly in the coming years, led by the demand for flat-screen televisions. Especially in the market for 40 inch screens or bigger, in addition to the known performance advantages in terms of response speed and wide viewing angle that PDPs enjoy over the competing technology of liquid crystal displays, or LCDs, PDPs are expected to overcome the drawback it had in its electric requirements by bringing it down to levels equivalent to or less than that of LCDs. Moreover, the advantage in investment efficiency of production facilities also enables to lower PDP prices. Given these circumstances, PDPs are expected to continue expanding the market share to more than 80 percent in the large-screen television market in the future. As a result, global demand for PDPs is estimated to rapidly increase from about 3 million units last year to more than 5 million units in fiscal 2005 and to more than 10 million units in fiscal 2007. MPDP currently has a total production capacity of 130,000 PDP panels a month with the two Ibaraki plants (Ibaraki, Osaka prefecture) (150,000 panels a month if the capacity of Panasonic Plasma Display (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China) is included). In order to respond to the further expansion seen in the market, MPDP is currently building its third plant, having the world’s largest production capacity of 250,000 panels a month, on the waterfront area in Amagasaki, Hyogo prefecture. When the construction of the third plant is completed and its operation begins, Matsushita group’s PDP production capacity centered on MPDP is expected to exceed 4.5 million units a year, further enforcing its No. 1 share in the global market. Toray worked on developing a manufacturing technology for rear panels, an essential component of PDPs, and succeeded in pioneering a unique rear panel production technology based on a core technology called “photosensitive paste method.” The technology is currently licensed to MPDP. In this process, several types of “pasting materials,” such as photosensitive barrier paste, are pasted on glass substrates to form minute patterns. These “pasting materials” were designed and developed by Toray exclusively for this process by bringing together its cutting-edge technologies. There are four kinds of “pasting materials” -- electrode application, dielectric application, barrier application and phosphor application (red, green and blue in color) -- and they are produced at a special facility within the Company’s Shiga Plant (Otsu, Shiga prefecture) and supplied to MPDP and PPDS. The rear panel production process and special pasting materials developed by Toray have the following advantages over the LCD method and competing PDP products: 1) it’s superior in productivity as its process for forming pattern is very short and takes less number of “baking” for making the patterns stable and strong and 2) it allows for a high degree of freedom in pattern formation, making it flexible in structural design including giving high luminance or lowering the electric requirements to improve the performance of PDP. These advantages contribute to improvements in both productivity and performance, thereby enhancing the competitiveness of the PDP businesses at MPDP and PPDS. In order to achieve higher productivity and ultra-high resolution of PDP, Toray is working on developing next-generation materials such as a paste that can handle ultra-high resolution of 150µm, which is less than half the existing barrier pitch. Furthermore, the enhancement to the production facility undertaken this time has been designed with specifications that factor in the future advances expected in material development and is aimed at further strengthening and developing the superiority of the photosensitive paste method. Under its mid-term management objective “Project NT-II,” Toray has been promoting its “offensive” management projects such as “Expansion of Advanced Materials Businesses” and “Expansion and Reinforcement of Global No.1 Businesses.” The aforementioned PDP paste is one of most important products representing the “advanced materials business” and is expected to lead to “Expansion and Reinforcement of Global No.1 Businesses.” Toray is determined to continue with the expansion of advanced material products business by further enhancing and strengthening its own advanced technologies. (Footnote) (*1) Matsushita PDP Company Ltd. Established: October 2000; Capitalization 15.6 billion yen; Investment ratio: Toray Industries, Inc. 25%, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 75% |
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