LG Electronics, which doubled its first-half 2008 liquid-crystal display television sales from a year earlier, said this week that it will boost its display sales by 30% to $20 billion by 2010.
The gains, which LG aims to achieve by increasing productivity, are part of the company’s effort to continue boosting profit from its TV-making operations.
Panel-making unit LG Display also is looking to capitalize on the high-definition television boom by forming a joint venture with Taiwan-based AmTran Technology. LG Display, which is 38% owned by LG Electronics, said the partnership it formed with AmTran will produce as many as 5 million LCD sets next year.
South Korea-based LG Electronics, the world’s No. 3 TV maker during the second quarter behind Samsung and Sony, will boost demand by spending $500 million on customizing its marketing efforts to specific parts of the world while outsourcing some of its manufacturing. The company also said it will spend about $1 billion on research and development within the next two years.
“Competition has intensified since the flat-panel TV industry has fully matured,” said Simon Kang, president-CEO of LG Electronics Digital Display Co., at Berlin’s IFA conference earlier this week. “However, we are confident that focused, localized marketing activities emphasizing our products, which embody the perfect harmony of design and technology, will separate us from our competitors.”
Last month, NPD Group unit DisplaySearch said global television shipments in the second quarter rose 11% from a year earlier to 47.5 million units as North American flat-screen TV sales surged in advance of the U.S. switchover to all-digital broadcasts in February.
Year-over-year growth accelerated from 1% in the first quarter as second-quarter liquid-crystal display and plasma shipments jumped 47% and 52%, respectively, according to DisplaySearch. The company said LG’s global revenue share was little changed from the first quarter at 11.5%.
In July, LG Electronics said its TV-making operations turned a second-quarter profit on an 86% surge in LCD sales. LG’s digital display unit had an operating profit of 38 billion Korean won ($37.4 million), compared with a loss of 138 billion Korean won ($135.8 million) a year earlier. Division sales jumped 37% to 3.74 trillion ($3.68 billion) and accounted for about 30% of the parent company’s revenue, up from 26% a year earlier.
LG Display in July said second-quarter earnings tripled from a year earlier.