May 21, 2007 -- Sharp Corp. will construct an LCD panel plant in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, to meet growing demand for large flat-screen TVs at home and abroad, The Nikkei learned Friday. The plant will be built on idle land adjacent to Nippon Steel Corp.'s Sakai Works. Sharp is currently in final negotiations with Nippon Steel to purchase the land. Investment is expected to reach 500 billion yen (US$4.1 billion) in the next several years. Sharp plans to turn it into one of the largest LCD panel production bases in Japan, following its Kameyama No. 2 plant in Mie Prefecture.

Construction is due to start this summer, with mass production to begin by 2009. Initial output capacity is estimated at 30,000 glass substrates a month, and the number will be raised to 60,000 a few years later. Sharp will negotiate with parts manufacturers to persuade them to build plants on adjoining land. It is targeting leading glassmakers such as Corning Inc. of the U.S. and Asahi Glass Co., along with top color-filter manufacturers Toppan Printing Co. and Dai Nippon Printing Co.

The Kameyama No. 2 plant, which rolls out eighth-generation substrates measuring 2.16 x 2.4 meters, came onstream last August and turns out 15,000 units a month. However, sales of 40-inch and larger LCD TV sets remain brisk in both the U.S. and Japan, and supplies are running out. Although Sharp is scrambling to boost output by such measures as quadrupling output at the No. 2 plant by July, it will exhaust its options for increasing production next year. By quickly boosting production capacity through a new plant, the electronics manufacturer plans to fend off challenges by South Korean and Taiwanese rivals.

Source: Asia Pulse
Source: Factiva