Sharp Corp., Japan's largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, said Tuesday it will invest ¥380 billion on the industry's most advanced manufacturing factory to catch up to Samsung Electronics Co.
The company plans to construct the plant in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, in November, with production expected to begin by March 2010, President Mikio Katayama said at a news conference.
The factory, with a production capacity of 72,000 panels a month, will initially make 36,000 a month.
Sharp is the first LCD maker to announce plans for a so-called 10th-generation factory that's designed to make 60-inch screens, giving it a head start over Samsung and Sony Corp. Its focus on larger, high-definition screens helped prices of its LCD TVs gain 4 percent in the first quarter, while rivals' prices declined.
The factory's glass substrates will be about 60 percent larger than the ones used at its Kameyama plant, Sharp said. The mother glass at the Sakai factory will be large enough to make six 60-inch LCD panels, eight 50-inch panels, or 15 40-inch panels at a time, compared with six 52-inch panels at Kameyama.
"We will make the ultimate LCD-making factory complex by inviting LCD-material suppliers," Katayama said.