Glass and ceramics maker Corning sees improving demand for flat-panel LCD glass in Q1

Earnings Preview-Corning

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Corning Inc., the world’s biggest maker of glass for flat-panel televisions and computers, reports its first-quarter results before the stock market opens Wednesday.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Signs of continued growth in the liquid-crystal-display glass market. The glass pioneer, which commands nearly two-thirds of the market, expects the global appetite for LCD-TVs will drive a 14 percent to 22 percent jump in glass industry volume in 2010.

Corning expects first-quarter volume in its wholly owned business will be 8 percent to 12 percent higher than the fourth quarter and flat to up slightly in its joint venture with South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co.

Corning plans to ramp up investment in China, building its first glass-melting factory there — possibly this year — at a cost of up to $700 million. As LCD-TV market penetration in the United States reaches 90 percent, China will become the global leader in total TV sales — about 70 percent of them LCD models. Corning projects the Chinese market could rise 32 percent this year to 37 million LCD-TVs.

WHY IT MATTERS: The recession sapped consumer spending, resulting in four straight declines in quarterly sales and 3,500 layoffs in January 2009. But the LCD glass market brightened soon afterward, gathering pace in the second half as shoppers continued buying LCD-TVs, laptop computers and electronic devices. Another key barometer is demand by LCD panel makers in Asia and gauging whether shipments might rise or fall later in the year to more closely parallel sales trends.

Based in the city of Corning in western New York, the 159-year-old company also makes ceramic auto-pollution filters and is the world’s largest producer of optical fiber and cable. It employs 24,500 people.

WHAT’S EXPECTED: Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, whose estimates typically exclude one-time items, expect Corning to earn 42 cents a share on revenue of $1.52 billion.

LAST YEAR’S QUARTER: Corning’s first-quarter profit skidded 99 percent to $14 million, or 1 cent per share, on $989 million in revenue, undermined by a plunge in glass orders and a $165 million pretax charge to pay for layoffs.

On the Net: www.corning.com