Corning beats on strong demand for Gorilla Glass, fibre cable

(Reuters) - Corning Inc reported better-than-expected quarterly results, helped by strong demand for its scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass and fibre optic products.

Sales in the company's telecommunications unit, which makes optical fibre cable, rose 24 percent to $650 million (404 million pounds) in the third quarter, accounting for nearly a third of total sales.

The company, however, said it expects a larger-than-usual seasonal decline in optical fibre sales in the current quarter, mainly in North America and China.

"We anticipate that fourth-quarter results will be sequentially lower ... ," Chief Financial Officer James Flaws said in a statement on Wednesday.

Flaws also said construction of Australia's National Broadband Network had been slower than expected.

The Corning, New York-based company's shares were up less than 1 percent at $17.64 in early trading on Wednesday.

Sales in its specialty materials unit rose 8 percent sequentially to $326 million due to higher demand for Gorilla Glass, which is used in Apple Inc's iPhones and iPads and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Galaxy devices.

Sales in the technologies segment, which makes LCD panels for Sony Corp, LG and Lenovo Group, rose 7 to $689 million.

Corning said last week it would buy out the Samsung group's stake in their joint venture that makes glass for liquid crystal displays (LCD).

A Samsung subsidiary will take a 7.4 percent share in Corning if it converts the preferred shares it received as part of the deal.

Corning said the transaction, expected to close in the first quarter of 2014, would add about $350 million in annual profit before special items.

The company's third-quarter net income fell to $408 million, or 28 cents per share, from $533 million, or 36 cents per share, a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, the company earned 33 cents a share.

Core net sales rose to $2.11 billion from $1.92 billion.

(Reporting by Soham Chatterjee; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)