A total of 740,000 Thin Liquid Crystal Display panels are expected to have been produced in Shanghai in October, making the city home to the world's biggest production line of 15-inch LCD panels based on fifth-generation TFT-LCD technology, the producer Shanghai SVA-NEC Liquid Crystal Display Co. Ltd announced Wednesday.

The company has prepared for a further capacity expansion to boost monthly capacity to 1.4 million next year. 

It now holds 40 percent of the global TFT-LCD market.

A joint venture between SVA Group Co., LTD (SVA) and Japan's Nippon Electric Corporation (NEC), SVA-NEC was was launched two years ago and is China's first TFT-LCD manufacturer.  It specializes in the design, development, manufacture, sale and after-sales of liquid crystal display panels and modules. The panels and modules produced are used in LCD monitors, notebooks, PCs and LCD TVs.

Based on the company, Shanghai is building a photo-electron industry center, with a total investment of US$6 billion and annual sales expected to exceed US$10 billion. The city has designated photo-electronics as a pillar industry for development in its 11th "Five-Year Plan".

(Shanghai Daily November 3, 2005)