NEW YORK – Corning Inc, the world's largest maker of glass for liquid crystal display televisions and computers, said Tuesday that it would cut capital spending in 2008 and 2009, had stopped outside hiring and might curtail production capacity because of spreading economic worries.

“Given this economic uncertainty, we are prepared to adjust our production capacity to match end market demand,” Chief Financial Officer James Flaws said in remarks prepared for a presentation to investors.

Corning backed its third-quarter earnings estimate of 43 cents to 45 cents a share. But it had lowered that forecast just a month ago.

The company also cautioned that glass volume shipments rose a less-than-expected 2 percent in the third quarter from the second quarter.

Flaws said volumes could decline sequentially in the fourth quarter, noting that many Taiwanese panel makers might decide to continue to run at lower utilization rates for much of the period.

Because of the economic uncertainty, Corning will delay some projects, meaning its total capital spending for 2008 and 2009 is likely to be about $400 million to $600 million lower than planned.

“In addition to the potential capacity levers in display, we have also stopped outside hiring and are preparing for capacity rationalization in other businesses if demand becomes weaker,” Flaws said. “Lastly, we will control the increase in our R&D spending to be much less than in recent years.”

(Reporting by Paul Thomasch; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)