LG.Philips plans first European LCD plant

LG.Philips decided they can't wait for European high-def sets to be delivered, so they're building their own. The electronics company announced that they will invest in an LCD manufacturing plant in Wroclaw, Poland. The timing of the announcement corresponds to some of our recent posting on Europe's lag in HDTV adoption, but we're fairly certain this had nothing to do with the decision.

LG.Philips is currently the second largest LCD supplier in the world and expects to open the new plant in 2007. The anticipated annual output at the start is 3 million panels, but plans for expansion should bring that total to a whopping 11 million by 2011. Expected panel sizes range from 26- to 42-inches, which is different from what we expect here in the U.S., as larger sized LCD sets are becoming the standard.