Samsung Electronics Places 40-inch Panel Order with AUO

Samsung Electronics has allegedly landed an order for 40-inch panels with Taiwan's AU Optronics Corp. (AUO), the Chinese-language Commercial Times reports.

In addition to AUO, Taiwan's No. 2 and No. 2 panel manufactures, Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp. (CMO) and Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. (CPT), will also become suppliers to Samsung in 2007. Samsung is expected to ship over six million LCD TVs this year, paralleling Sony and Sharp to be one of the world's largest LCD TV brands.

The Korean company recently mapped out its 2007 LCD TV shipment goal of 10 million units, compared with the forecasted global demand of about 66 million units. Samsung is expected to outsource about 40% of the needed panels (mainly 32-inch to 40-inch) from outside suppliers in 2007, because the capacity at S-LCD Corp., a joint venture between Samsung and Sony, will be insufficient to support the production volume.