Sharp to create new flat panel center By CARL FREIRE, Associated Press Writer

Sharp to create new flat panel center By CARL FREIRE, Associated Press Writer
40 minutes ago



TOKYO - Electronics maker Sharp Corp. plans to spend about $3.2 billion on a new LCD panel factory that will form the core of a new flat-panel industrial park, the company said Tuesday.

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The electronics maker envisions the industrial park as a "manufacturing complex for the 21st century," and plans to invite other leading material manufacturers to set up plants adjacent to its liquid-crystal display factory, it said.

Bringing all the companies together at one site should improve productivity, reduce distribution costs, help in production planning and promote collaboration among them, the Sharp statement said.

Japan's Asahi Glass Co. — the world's No. 2 maker of the glass known as substrate that is used to make LCDs — plans to participate in the center, company spokesman Yoshihiko Saito said. The company is still in talks with Sharp over what type of facility would be most effective, he said.

Dai Nippon Printing Co., which manufactures color filters — a core component of LCD panels — likewise intends to build facilities at the site in western Japan, company spokesman Ichiro Yagi said.

The world's No. 1 glass substrate maker, Corning Inc., also has plans to construct facilities at the center, according to Japanese business daily The Nikkei.

The factory will be built the city of Sakai, located in the southern part of Osaka prefecture, about 250 miles west of Tokyo. Work on Sharp's factory is slated to begin this November, the Osaka-based company said. It's expected to begin operations in March 2010.

Sharp also plans to build a thin-film solar cell factory at the site that will also begin operations in March 2010, the company said. Details on the investment were still under review, it said.

In 2006, Sony Corp. overtook Sharp and Samsung Electronics Co. to become the world's biggest maker of LCD TVs in terms of revenue, with its market share rising to 16 percent, a survey by market researcher DisplaySearch showed. Samsung trailed in second place with a 15 percent, followed by Sharp with 11.5 percent.