Corning has identified three near-term growth initiatives as part of its strategy to improve profitability and invest in the company's future, said Wendell P. Weeks, Corning's president and COO. These are Fiber in the local access network or FTTP, emission control products for heavy-duty and light-duty diesel engines and the growing market for LCD glass.
In the FTTP arena, Weeks believes the RBOCs' deployment of FTTP networks will present a two-phased market opportunity for Corning. "First, the RBOCs will pass homes, creating the basic infrastructure of their FTTP network." This phase of network deployment will create a $60 to $100 per home-passed market opportunity for Corning. "Then, the carrier will extend the optical network all the way to the subscriber - and connect homes." Weeks believes this will create an additional market opportunity of $70 to $120 per home connected. Corning expects the number of homes passed and connected will be relatively small in 2004.
In an investors' conference in New York, Corning also reaffirmed its previously announced first-quarter guidance, anticipating sales in the range of $770 million to $830 million, with earnings per share in the range of $0.04 to $0.05, before special items. Corning remains sold out of LCD manufacturing capacity in the first quarter and glass volume is expected to grow sequentially in the range of 5% to 10%, with stable pricing. Sequential volume of optical fiber products will be flat to down 5%, with some moderate pricing pressure expected for the quarter. The company also expects to see quarterly sales increases as both its automotive and diesel product lines are sold out of manufacturing capacity for the first quarter. http://www.corning.com/investor_relations/
