Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., the Japan-based electronics company behind the Panasonic brand, will build the world’s largest plasma television plant here at a cost of $2.35 billion to meet booming demand.
The factory in this western Japanese city in Hyogo prefecture would start operating in May 2009 and have a production capacity of 1 million units a month.
“We believe demand for thin screen televisions will increase rapidly in coming years,” said Fumio Ohtsubo, president of Matsushita. “We must increase our production to meet the rising demand.”
The company will build the factory with its joint venture partner, the chemical group Toray Industries Inc., at a cost of 280 billion yen. It will be their fifth plasma display plant.
Matsushita said it expects that by 2010, 65 percent of the 200 million television sets sold worldwide every year will be flat-panel TVs.
Ohtsubo said the firm will continue to put its priority on the European and U.S. markets as “the main battle ground,” along with emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Some 70 percent of the expected group sales growth will come from overseas during the next three years, he said.
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