Corning Expects High Demand For TV Glass

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Corning Inc. said Friday it expects its annual sales to grow more than 50 percent to $10 billion by 2014, driven by surging demand for ultra-thin glass used in television monitors, smart phones and touch-screen tablets.

The world’s biggest maker of liquid-crystal-display glass predicts the global appetite for flat-panel LCD TVs, computers and mobile devices will drive up industry volume to around 5 billion square feet in 2014 from 3.1 billion square feet now.

Demand for LCD glass in 2011 will run between 3.6 billion and 3.8 billion square feet, it said.

Corning’s revenue reached $6.6 billion last year, up 23 percent from $5.4 billion in 2009.

Its shares rose 63 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $23.20 in afternoon trading. The stock is trading at the upper edge of a 52-week range of $15.45 to $23.04.

Sales in Corning’s display technologies group, its biggest business by far, should grow from $3 billion in 2010 to between $3.4 billion and $3.8 billion in 2014, Chief Financial Officer Jim Flaws told analysts and institutional investors at an annual meeting in New York.

Driven by a fast-emerging Gorilla cover glass business, specialty materials revenue will rise from $600 million in 2010 to at least $1.8 billion to $2 billion in 2014, Flaws said.

“We believe there’s considerable upside potential to this number … given the rapid increase in cover glass needs and the significant opportunities we see outside consumer electronics,” he said.

Invented in 1962, Gorilla glass failed to find a commercial use and languished in a research lab for almost a half-century. Corning is hoping the latest trend in TVs – frameless flat-screens that could be mistaken for chic glass artwork on a living-room wall – could catapult it to multibillion-dollar status.

Hard to break, dent or scratch, Gorilla glass generated around $250 million in sales in 2010, but soaring demand could boost revenue to $1 billion this year as it begins to migrate from cell phones and tablets to high-end TVs. Sony Corp. said it will soon incorporate Gorilla in a new line of Bravia TVs.

“We need to see how big” the nascent market for Gorilla-equipped TVs turns out this year, Flaws said. “If they sell really great, we could be a long way up on that (forecast).”

The market’s shift to mobile computing will bring rapid growth of tablet devices in the personal computer space, presenting an “exceptional growth opportunity” for the 3-year-old Gorilla business, which competes with LG Display Co. and Asahi Glass Co., said James Clappin, Corning’s glass technologies group chief.

The 160-year-old company, based in western New York, also makes ceramic auto-pollution filters and is the world’s largest producer of optical fiber and cable. It employs 24,500 people.

Revenue in its telecommunications group will grow from $1.7 billion to between $2.3 billion and $2.6 billion in 2014 and “additional acquisitions could make this even higher,” Flaws said.

Corning expects LCD TVs to remain a favored TV technology in coming years, driven by robust demand in China and other emerging markets and a shortened TV replacement cycle than traditional sets.

The company said it took back some market share in the fourth quarter as retail demand for LCD TVs stalled in the United States last year. But research firm DisplaySearch projects renewed demand in North America this year, with shipments climbing 8 percent to 40.5 million units.

With LCD-TV market penetration reaching 65 percent in the U.S., China will become the global leader in total TV sales. Corning is planning to build an $800 million advanced LCD glass plant in Beijing, with operations to start in early 2012.

Its China sales will rise from more than $800 million in 2010 to an estimated $1.2 billion this year and could reach $2 billion in 2014.