Korean telly factory power cut costs Samsung $30,000+ per second

Samsung Display has suffered a power outage at one of its LCD plants that could cost the firm tens of millions of dollars.

Lights went out at the Samsung Electronics' telly division plant in the western city of Asan for around 10 minutes last night, the Yonhap news agency reported.

A Samsung official said that the plant's key facilities weren't affected by the power outage because an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system immediately kicked in, but it will still take considerable time to normalise the entire LCD production line.

"We are currently restoring other facilities and estimating the size of the damage," the official said.

He said the damage was estimated to reach several tens of billions of won, or several tens of millions of dollars.

The outage, apparently caused by a worker's mistake at an electricity substation, is a tough break for Samsung's loss-making LCD biz, which was thrown out of its parent Samsung Electronics' house in April. ®