According to Korea Times, Samsung Electronics has announced plans to build its second LCD module plant in Suzhou to meet the increasing demand in China's flat-panel TV market.

Samsung says that it plans to totally invest USD500 million in this new plant, of which USD150 million will be used in the first-phase construction of the plant. With an initial annual production capacity of two million, the plant is expected to start production in the first half of 2009.

Samsung originally planned to locate this plant in Guangzhou or Shenzhen, but because other companies have LCD projects in these cities, the company changed the location of this plant to Suzhou. Samsung already has an LCD module plant in Suzhou built in late 2002 where it assembles panels for notebook computers and monitors while LCD modules produced in the new plant will be used in LCD TV sets.

According to Samsung, the expansion is necessary for the company at the current stage or it will be caught by its rivals in China. Statistics from China's State Information Center show that Samsung, Sony and Sharp were the top three sellers in China's LCD TV market in the first six months of 2008 with market shares of 12.25%, 12.13% and 10.45%, respectively.