LG Electronics plans to shut down its assembly line at one of its three operating plasma display panel factories within the next month. It's being widely viewed as a way for the firm to cut some of its losses.
LG said it is now considering several strategic options to "efficiently adjust the plasma display business," according to Reuters, which said further details of that strategy would not come for another few months.
While LG is second only to Matsushita (Panasonic brand) in plasma manufacturing globally, it is ahead of fellow South Korean firm Samsung. Despite LG's success in the mobile phone market, its plasma display unit posted a loss of about 16 percent, thus wiping out positive quarterly numbers for Q1 2007.
At the same time, cutting one of its three plants will not reduce its plasma production capacity by a third, but rather 16 percent, and could save the firm a minimum of $22 million.
While LG said nothing about what it sees for the future of plasma technology, at least one competitor, Philips, has predicted that eventually LCD will dominant the overall flat-panel TV market.
