Sep. 16, 2010 (China Knowledge) - Corning Display Technologies (China) Co, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Corning Inc recently signed an agreement with the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, or BDA, to invest US$800 million to build a new LCD glass substrate plant in the area.

The new plant, which will possess smelting pots and have rear-stage working ability of 8.5-generation glass substrates, will produce the world's most advanced glass substrates for the 8.5G TFT-LCD production line of BOE Technology Group Co Ltd<000725><200725>.

The new plant will start construction this month, and is expected to start operation in the first half of 2012.

The project will accelerate the construction of the Beijing Digital Television Industry Park that is led by BOE Technology.

As a Fortune Global 500 company and the world leader in specialty glass and ceramics, Corning Inc is the first company in the world that begins mass production of 0.4mm glass substrates.

Currently, most panel makers start with 0.5mm substrates for portable kit, and then run a thinning process to reduce the thickness of glass.

In June, 1993, Beijing Corning Cable Co was inaugurated in BDA and in March, 2008, Corning Display Technologies (China) came to the area.