Toshiba Corp. plans to build a liquid crystal display television plant in Poland to boost production of large screen LCD television sets for the European market, company sources said Sunday.
Toshiba, which is now negotiating with the Polish government to conclude a deal for the plant construction, will invest about 5 billion yen to build the facility in the southwestern Polish city of Wroclaw to launch the production of 32-inch and larger LCD television sets at the plant in 2007, the source said.
The decision to produce the plant is aimed at responding to rapidly growing demand for the thin LCD television sets in Europe.
The Japanese company plans to triple the annual production of large-screen sets in Europe to 3 million units in around 2008 and 2009 when the new plant is operating at full capacity.
The Toshiba plant will procure LCD panels from a factory of South Korean manufacturer LG Phillips LCD Co. which is under construction near the site of the Toshiba factory.
It will also purchase the panels from a plant in the Czech Republic to be set up by IPS Alpha Technology Ltd, a joint venture of Toshiba, Hitachi Ltd. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.