Irico Electronics builds China’s largest TFT-LCD plant

Irico Electronics Group, China’s largest cathode ray tube (CRT) producer, said Tuesday it will spend tens of billions of yuan building a 6th generation thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) plant in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu province, the Shanghai Securities News reported. General manager Xing Daoqin announced at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new plant that the company will initially invest US$2.14 billion (RMB14.6 billion) in what will be China’s largest flat screen plant, capable of producing 4.372 million 32/37-inch LCD displays when operational in two years. Industry watchers say the plant will reduce China’s reliance on imports of large-sized TFT-LCDs. Irico Electronics, owned by the central government, currently runs nine assembly lines with a combined annual capacity of 16 million panels.