LG Display (LPL)

Manufacturing Productivity and Costs

We seek to continually enhance our manufacturing productivity and thereby reduce the cost of producing each panel. We have significantly expanded our production capacity since the official launch of the joint venture by investing in fabs that can process increasingly larger-size glass substrates. The following table shows the input substrate size, initial design capacity and actual input capacity as a result of ramp up for each of our fabs as of the dates indicated:

Our capital expenditures, which relate mainly to the construction of new fabs, including the construction and equipping of P6 and P7, and the acquisition of new equipment, amounted to (Won)1,116.9 billion in 2002, (Won)1,438.2 billion in 2003 and (Won)3,885.7 billion (US$3,753.9 million) in 2004. The increase in capital expenditures for successive fabs has been more than offset by the increase in our unit output resulting from our investments. As a result, our depreciation expense as a percentage of sales decreased from 26.6% in 2002 to 15.7% in 2003 and to 14.7% in 2004. We expect our capital expenditures to increase significantly as we develop the Paju industrial complex, including the construction and build-out of P7, which we expect will cost approximately (Won)3.1 trillion in 2005. We currently estimate that the construction and build-out of P7, at a capacity of 90,000 sheets per month, will cost approximately (Won)5.3 trillion.

Since inception we have designed our fabs in-house and co-developed most equipment sets with our suppliers. These efforts have enabled us to gain valuable experience in designing and operating next generation fabs capable of processing increasingly larger-size glass substrates. We have been able to leverage this experience to achieve and maintain high production output and yields at our fabs, thereby lowering costs. For example, P4, the world’s first fifth-generation fab, began commercial production in March 2002 and reached its initial design capacity of 60,000 sheets per month by June 2003. Similarly, P5, also a fifth-generation fab, began commercial production in May 2003 and reached its initial design capacity of 60,000 sheets per month by December 2003. We anticipate that P6, a sixth-generation fab which began commercial production in August 2004, will reach its initial design capacity of 90,000 sheets per month during the third quarter of 2005. In

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addition, in recent years we have substituted a portion of our equipment purchased from overseas suppliers with purchases from domestic vendors as part of our ongoing efforts to reduce our reliance on overseas suppliers for key components and equipment. Currently, we purchase approximately 46% of our equipment from local suppliers on an invoiced basis, and we plan to continue this localization effort to diversify our supply source and reduce costs. We aim to actively facilitate the development of a domestic vendor base to take advantage of lower prices and to reduce our vulnerability to possible component shortages during times of surplus demand. We also fabricate certain components internally, such as color filters, which are one of the industry’s higher-cost components.

We also continue to make various process improvements at our fabs, including enhancing the performance of process equipment, efficiency of material flows and quality of process and product designs. For example, we have reduced the number of mask steps in the TFT process from five to four, thereby enabling us to process a higher number of substrates in a given period of time. Such process improvements result in increased unit output of our fabs without significant capital investment, thus enabling us to reduce fixed costs on a per panel basis.

Raw materials comprise the largest component of our costs. On a per panel basis, our raw material costs decreased from (Won)158,987 in 2002 to (Won)107,005 in 2003 and (Won)76,630 (US$74.0) in 2004, primarily due to improvements in product design and purchasing scale as well as product mix. In addition, over the past several years we have consistently increased the proportion of our raw material purchases from local suppliers, who typically offer lower prices compared to overseas suppliers. In 2004, approximately 71% of our raw materials were sourced from local suppliers. We have also been able to leverage our scale and leading industry position to obtain competitive prices from our suppliers. Certain strategic decisions, such as fabricating our own color filters, one of the higher cost components, have also been important drivers of our cost control.

The size of our operations has also expanded considerably from 2002 to date, enabling us to benefit from economies of scale. As a result of the above factors, our cost of sales per panel, including small-size display panels, or panels smaller than 10 inches in size, decreased from (Won)278,289 in 2002 to (Won)175,965 in 2003 and (Won)119,552 (US$115.5) in 2004.