The management committee of Guangzhou Development District has announced that the South Korean LCD panel maker LG Display Company has decided to invest USD4 billion to build its 8.5th-generation LCD panel production line in the district.

Jointly constructed by Guangzhou Development District and LG Display, this new LCD panel project will start construction in 2010 and is expected to put into production in 2012. Focusing on the production of 8.5th-generation LCD panel with the specification of 2.2-2.5 meters, the plant will initially achieve a production capacity of 60,000 panels per month and its capacity will be further expanded to 120,000 panels per month in the future. Compared with the eighth-generation production line, the 8.5th-generation can reduce the material costs when cutting large panels.

After the Chinese display products and solutions supplier BOE's construction of China's first eighth-generation production line, many companies, including Japan's Sharp and South Korea's Samsung and LG Display, expressed intentions to build their eighth-generation production lines in mainland China. However, LG Display finally decided to build a 8.5th-generation production line, which was probably to avoid competition.

Prior to this, LG Display has set up a 8.5th-generation LCD panel production line in its domestic Paju plant. The 8.5th-generation production line is currently the highest generation LCD panel production line, which is expected to lead the market in the next five years.