Sony and Samsung's LCD partnership will extend to the eighth-generation panels after the pair agreed to put up the cash for a new plant in South Korea, it has been claimed.

According to industry sources cited by South Korean newssite Digital Chosunilbo, the two panel partners are about to shake hands on the deal which will then need to be accepted by both firms' boards - a formality, it seems.

If all goes well, the sources said, Sony and Samsung will break ground on the KRW1tr ($1.06bn) plant, to be sited in Samsung’s LCD facility in Tangjeong, South Chungcheong Province, in the Autumn. The moles maintain Samsung has already cleared the plant's site, ready for construction to begin.

Sony and Samsung agreed to cross-license their respective LCD patents in December 2004, eight months after the two formed S-LCD, a company tasked with building and running a joint seventh-generation panel plant. Samsung's stake in the KRW2.1tr ($2.23bn) JV is a single share more than Sony's. The eighth-generation plant will, it's said, raise S-LCD's value to KRW4.1tr ($4.35bn). ®