Earthquake Halts LCD Output

Corning Inc. announced that production at its LCD glass manufacturing facility in Shizuoka, Japan, was disrupted by an earthquake that occurred in Honshu Monday.

Operations at the glass-making facility in Shizuoka, the area hardest hit by the 6.5-magnitude quake “are currently suspended and we believe they will remain so for some time. We are assessing options to meet customer demand and accelerating the restart of idled glass melting tanks at other facilities,” said James B. Flaws, vice chairman and chief financial officer.”

Corning said the shutdown will reduce sales by an estimated $65 million in the July-September quarter, anticipating the wholly owned glass business will drop 5 percent to 10 percent compared with the second quarter.

“While it is easy to get discouraged by events that are out of our control, we are equally encouraged by our July results, which came in stronger than we anticipated.,” said Flaw.

While there were no reports of injuries at the Corning plant, the earthquake did claim one life and injured 100 others.

“There's no structural damage and there was no fire,” spokeswoman Kelli Hopp-Michlosky told the Associated Press. “We are dealing with a misalignment of glassmaking equipment that we need to remedy. We don't know the full scope of that yet."

Corning's newest plant in Sakai City, near Osaka, which began producing glass sheets this year, was not affected by the earthquake.

LCD glass is Corning's biggest business. The 157-year-old company, based in the city of Corning in western New York, also makes optical fiber and cable and auto-pollution filters.

Corning shares fell 38 cents to $16.01 in midday trading Tuesday. Its shares have ranged from $7.36 to $21.76 over the past 52 weeks.

For more information, visit: www.corning.com