Winner of
Marketing Battle

LG Electronics beats its rivals to corner biggest share in world plasma panel market

LG Electronics said it has overtaken Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. as the world's largest seller of plasma panels in the first quarter of this year. Korea's major flat-screen television maker said it has shipped 730,000 units in the first quarter of this year, up 84 percent from the same period last year, beating the Japanese electronic firm's shipment figures of 560,000 units in the same period, the company said quoting estimates by Display Search.
The company said it was for the first time in 5 years that it topped the quarterly sales of the product in the world, adding that it will continue to lead the market for 40-inch or larger flat-panel TVs by maintaining its strong position on cost and technology. "We will continue to be the top seller of the product this year and next,"said Yoon Sang-han, president and CEO of the company's Digital Display Division.
Major television makers like LG and Samsung Electronics are rushing to slash prices for their flat-screen television models, especially in the merging mainstream segment of 40-inch or slightly bigger screens, expecting a surge in demand ahead of the World Cup soccer tournament in Germany in June.
LG said it accounted for 31 percent of global production of PDPs during the quarter, compared with the Japanese maker sharing 24 percent of the production, tied with Samsung SDI. Industry analysts recently adjusted the investment rating downward for Samsung SDI,
raising the possibility that its cost-cutting measures might not offset a steep fall in profit margins.
The PDP makers face intensifying competition from liquid crystal display or LCD, television models because the latter's prices have gone down rapidly in recent months. Consumers tend to opt for PDP televisions when they want 50-inch or bigger screens because they are relatively cheaper, however, when it comes to models with a 42-inch screen, they choose LCD models, posing a threat to plasma panel makers.
LG said it also topped the list with $560 million in sales, compared with Matsushita's $451 million and Samsung SDI's $421 million.
"LG views the first quarter as an important turning point for taking the top position due to the yield stabilization of its A3-1 Line, which began operation last September and reached the "old yield"point in late 2006,"Yoon said.
The company's current monthly output capacity for plasma panels is 310,000 units, the industry's highest.
LG said its overall monthly capacity will shoot up to 360,000 units from July this year, as it adopts eight-panel processing technology for its A3-1 Line, boosting the line's monthly output to 370,000 units. The company's new A3 Line is expected to produce 180,000 panels monthly.
The A3 Line is a complex system consisting of three individual lines and one base. The company has been investing in the lines one-by-one and plans to complete the whole process by building the third line in 2007, which will lead to a 730,000-unit monthly capacity by next year. Global plasma TV demand is forecast to reach 25 million units in 2010 from the current 12 million units. nw

LG Electronics Vice Chairman Kim Ssang-soo.

LG Electronics 50-inch Time Machine PDP TV set with Park Ji-song, a midfielder for Korean World Cup squad as model.