Reaffirming their liquid crystal display (LCD) panel manufacturing alliance, Samsung and Sony have plans to jointly construct a third flat-screen factory in South Korea, according to filings with the Korea Stock Exchange.

The companies are planning to invest $1.8 billion (1.8 trillion Korean won) on an eighth-generation (8G) production line through their S-LCD joint venture that already operates two factories in Tangjeong in South Korea. The new factory will be built at the same site and is scheduled to start turning out LCD panels in the second quarter of 2009, the two companies said in reports.

In November 2006, S-LCD completed its second line called 8-1, which is also 8G.

The new line has been given the name 8-2, and will accept sheets of mother glass-- from which several panels can be made-- measuring 220 centimeters by 250 centimeters.

In addition to its other eighth-generation line in Tangjeong, called line 8-1, S-LCD operates its original seventh-generation (7G) line. With each successive jump in production technology the size of the mother glass sheets is increased and economies are introduced into the production process, with the higher technology lines making larger panels at a lower per-inch cost.

The 8-2 factory is scheduled to process 60,000 mother glass sheets per month, which makes it larger than the 8-1 facility that handles up to 50,000 sheets per month, reports said.

Output from the plant will be split between the companies, with 51% going to Samsung and 49% going to Sony, in line with their share holdings in S-LCD.

In February, Sony had started talks with Sharp towards investing in a new production line that Sharp has under construction in Japan, which will be based on tenth generation technology and will be best suited to making LCD panels in the 60- and 50-inch class.