Jeong-Seop Park, Seoul
LG, Samsung Step Up Foreign Technology Tie-ups
Large electronics firms from Korea, the US and Japan are launching mutual stepped-up cooperation for production technology and sales tie-ups, it has been revealed.
In collaboration with General Electric of the United States, LG Electronic is building an air conditioner plant with an annual capacity of 200,000 units in China's Tianjin for dedication later this year.
The joint-venture project will see LG Electronics provide the proposed plant with production technology with GE taking charge of the design for the product.
LG Electronics and GE are also considering expanding the mutual cooperation to the production of washing machines and refrigerators. LG Electronics has also agreed with Japan's Asahi Glass to form a US$300 million joint venture to produce 17 million glass bulbs a year for TV display screens for Indonesia.
Under the agreement, the two companies will incorporate Video Display Glass Indonesia, in Bekasi, some 50 kilometres east of Jakarta, which will be operational from October 1997.
Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd (SEC) and Creative Technology Ltd recently concluded a comprehensive agreement to jointly develop, produce and sell next-generation 12-multiple-speed CD-ROM drivers, CD-ROMs digital video disks (DVDs) and other optical devices.
CD ROM, DVD Technology / Audio
The agreement will be a marriage of SEC's CD ROM driver and DVD technology with Creative Technology's computer sound technology. It is hoped the result will see the rapid development of highly competitive products for the international market.
SEC will complete the development of its new CD-ROM in November of this year and expects to market the new products worth US$300 million by mid 1997. SEC will also secure sales channels for a future generation of CD-ROM drivers, allowing the company to compete competitively with Japanese makers.
Creative Technology specializes in sales of multimedia products and was the first to load sound capabilities into a PC. The company's 'Sound Blaster' currently occupies 60% of the world's sound card market and has produced its own double-speed, quadruple and 8-multiple-speed CD-ROM drivers and retailed them in packages with the sound cards.
SEC became heavily involved in CD-ROM development and production last year and in March this year, became the first Korean company to put an 8-multiple-speed device on the domestic market.
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