LCD market approaching saturation: Samsung exec

SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Yonhap) -- The liquid crystal display (LCD) market is approaching saturation, an executive of South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. said Tuesday, raising concerns about declining sales growth.

"There is some concern that our sales growth might stall as the LCD industry is
nearing maturity," Chang Won-kie, who oversees Samsung's LCD business unit as the
company's co-president, said at a weekly meeting of Samsung Group executives.
The LCD market expanded to US$71.9 billion this year from $35.2 billion in 2004,
Chang said, a faster pace than the growth of the $40-billion memory semiconductor
market.
"We need to find a new growth engine in the LCD industry, besides displays for
TVs, monitors and PC laptops," he added. A supply glut for those products could
drag down prices.
Samsung Electronics, which launched its LCD business in 1991, has commanded the
industry in close competition with LG Display Co., also of Korea.
Chang made the comments one day after LG Display, the world's second-largest flat
panel maker, announced it is pushing to build its first LCD plant in China.
"We are also interested in building a plant in China," Chang said, without going
into further details.
Market researcher iSupply expected a robust recovery in the global LCD market
during the second half of the year, predicting global shipments of LCD panels
will rise to 518 million units in 2009, up 18.6 percent from 2008.