Sharp Corp. is considering building a second factory in Mexico to assemble flat-panel TVs for the North American market, it said Tuesday.
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper reported in its Tuesday morning edition that Sharp plans to spend ¥5 billion (US$42 million) to build the factory, which will start operating in the latter half of this year and triple Sharp’s Mexican production capacity. The newspaper, which did not name its source, also said the new factory would be located near an existing facility in the Mexican state of Baja California.
Sharp is one of the world’s leading makers of LCD (liquid crystal display) televisions and said Monday that sales of its sets are strong during the current season in the U.S., Europe and Japan.
Sharp produces the LCD display panels for the sets in Japan and then sends them to several factories overseas where they are combined with other components to result in a finished television set. At present its factory in Kameyama can handle up to 15,000 sheets of LCD mother glass per month. Each sheet can be used to make eight 46-inch panels or six 52-inch panels. On Monday it said it will double capacity at the plant from January, which is two months earlier than originally planned, thanks to strong demand.
The current factory in Mexico produces both CRT (cathode ray tube) and LCD TVs, said Miyuki Nakayama, a spokeswoman for Sharp in Tokyo. Sharp also assembles LCD TVs at sites in Japan, China, Malaysia and Spain. Sharp currently assembles LCD TVs for the U.S. market in Mexico, China and Japan.
