LG.Philips Displays has announced it would close its Newport, Wales and Southport, England plants for manufacturing CRT tubes and materials, laying off 941 workers and placing greater reliance on its Far East plants.
The Hong Kong-based company, a joint venture between Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands and LG Electronics of Korea, attributed the closing to declining demand and falling prices for CRT-based monitors and televisions as liquid crystal display-based products continue to gain market share.
Industry analysts have reported that sales of LCD-based desktop monitors will soon surpass those of CRT monitors, and expect flat-panel LCD TV sales to begin eroding CRT-based TV sales the next few years as suppliers bring on new fabs to produce larger display panels.
LG.Philips' plant in Newport, South Wales employs 870 workers in producing color display tubes for monitors and color picture tubes for televisions as well as deflection yokes. It is expected to close August.
A spokesperson said the closing of the Newport plant would result in all CRT monitors being manufactured in several of the company's China and Korea plants. LG.Philips still has several European plants to manufacture TV picture tubes, the spokesperson added.
The Southport plant employs 71 workers in producing ferrite powder for deflection yoke rings used to manufacture CRT and TV tubes and will close by early 2004. The powder will now originate at the company's China plants where it can be manufactured at lower cost.
According to the spokesperson, LG.Philips Displays has begun consulting employees and trade union representatives to arrange severance and help them find new jobs.
