The increase in the production of liquid crystal panels in China goes on. Furthermore, the Chinese government has come up with the target of raising the ratio of the supply of panels to the domestic market itself to 80% by 2015. This means expanding the production capacity to 2.6 times that of 2013. In accordance with this, the demand too will double for specialty gases such as the nitrogen trifluoride, silane, and ammonia used in TFT-LCD manufacture.

The leading Chinese panel manufacturer BOE Technology has already revealed the construction of plants in Hebei and Chongqing to produce the 8.5 next generation panels. China Star Optoelectronics Technology Shenzhen and Nanjing China Electronics Panda are also going ahead with the construction of new plants and production expansion. In addition, regarding manufacture in Korea, Samsung Display plans to increase production at its plant in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, to 8.5 times that of 2013 by 2015. The LG Electronics plant in Guangzhou is scheduled to go into operation during the first half of this year.

The market in China for specialty gases in 2013 is estimated to amount to around 1,800 tons for nitrogen trifluoride and around 380 tons for silane. If, however, the increase in production were to go ahead as planned, there would be an expansion in the demand for nitrogen trifluoride to 3,000 tons and for silane to 650 tons.

In contrast, liquid crystal panel manufacturers in Korea and Taiwan, just by virtue of the fact that they rely highly on exports from China, remain watchful regarding a possible decrease in their own production. Regarding specialty gas, right now Korea and Taiwan hold respectively first and second place in terms of the market share they account for. Just because of this, it is quite possible that the makeup of the market could change by 2015.