Samsung to end plasma display panel production

SEOUL,S.KOREA: Samsung SDI on Tuesday announced its  plan to end plasma display panel (PDP) production because of worsening profitability and sluggish demand for PDP televisions and PDP-embedded devices.

The company's PDP plants are in Cheonan and Ulsan. It said it is looking at reusing some equipment for battery production, while selling the rest.

Plasma displays have increasingly lost market share to LCD and OLED panels as LED backlights narrowed the performance gap between the two technologies.

SDI, which started PDP manufacturing in 2001, plans to reallocate 1,200 of its staff from the division to its energy and materials businesses. SDI reported 1.56 trillion won in revenue last year, accounting for 31.1 percent out of the total generated in 2013, it said.

The move away from plasma panels is reminiscent of the video tape wars of the 1980s.

SAmsung SDI, the battery-making affiliate of Samsung Group, is realigning its business structure to focus on large-sized batteries by restructuring unprofitable units.