Linde Group, a gases and engineering company, announced that Linde LienHwa (LLH), a joint venture between Linde and Taiwan-based LienHwa MiTAC Group, has signed a gas supply agreement with Samsung Electronics. Under the terms of the agreement, LLH will supply gases to Samsung Electronics’ new TFT-LCD manufacturing facility located at Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) in China.
The plant will use the industrial gases to manufacture transistors, which control the pixels in LCD screens. Linde makes a total investment of EUR 50 million for the project, which will double LLH’s production capacity at the SIP facility.
The contract expands Linde’s footprint in Asia and it is also strategically important for LLH’s position in eastern China. In addition, the contract reinforces the company’s position as a major gas supplier for electronics manufacturers across the globe.
Huge volumes of very high purity gases are essential for manufacturing TFT-LCD screens and they are utilized to produce the microscopic thin-film transistors (TFT). LLH will offer an installation of the bulk gases supply systems at the TFT-LCD plant and the delivery of gases will commence at the end of 2012. The scope of the project includes the erection of a new SPECTRA-N 30,000 series nitrogen generator, which supplies gas to Samsung Electronics through an underground pipeline. The new panel manufacturing plant of Samsung Electronics is built by Suzhou Samsung LCD (SSL), a JV between TCL, SIP and Samsung.