Vertical Divider
HKC starts construction of 2ndGen 8.6 fab
November 05, 2018
 
HKC, which last week reportedly deferred its efforts on a Gen 10.5/11 fab in Zhengzhou, officially started pouring concrete pilings for its second Gen 8.6 LCD fab in Mianyang, China.  The $3.45b US project is expected to take 18 months, which would put equipment move-in around April 2020 and mass production around July 2020.  Based on the original HKC plans the Mianyang fab was expected to open in 3Q 2019 (phase 1).   
 
 
Figure 1: HKC Mianyang Fab Project
Source: ofweek

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​Originally, the HKC fab’s capacity was for 60,000 sheets/month in two 30,000-sheet/month phases, but the fab is actually designed for 120,000 sheet capacity when fully built out.  HKC has been generating ~$200m/qtr. in large panel sales in recent months, but will be somewhat limited given they have been relatively late to the Chinese capacity expansion cycle and will not start to see meaningful capacity gains until 2020.  HKC also has a branded TV, monitor, and PC line, although they are not among the top 5 TV brands, but the ability to feed panels to its own branded lines is certainly an advantage the company has currently (since mid 2017) and will expand in 2020 and beyond.