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Hitachi to Double Output at Flat-Panel-TV Plant in Central Japan

Posted on: Wednesday, 1 February 2006, 18:00 CST

Tokyo, Feb. 1 (Jiji Press)--Hitachi Ltd. will double the monthly production capacity at a central Japan plant making flat-panel televisions to 60,000 units from April, company officials told Jiji Press on Wednesday.

The plant in Gifu Prefecture, which assembles plasma TVs and liquid crystal display TVs, operated at full capacity last December at a monthly rate of 30,000 units.

Hitachi grabbed a domestic market share of 35 pct for plasma TVs in year-end sales.(MORE)Hitachi to Double Output at Flat-Panel-TV Plant in Central Japan

For the production hike, Hitachi will increase the number of the plant's workforce by 70 pct to 1,200 by summer, the officials said.

For fiscal 2006 starting in April, the company aims to boost global sales of plasma TVs by 1.7-fold to 1.2 million units and those of LCD TVs by 3.7-fold to 750,000 units.

Hitachi's output capacity of flat-panel TVs will increase in North America and Europe as well. While the company now outsources production in Europe to another maker, it plans to build its own manufacturing base, possibly in November, the officials said.

This will be the company's first own TV production in Europe since it stopped making cathode-ray-tube models five years ago.

In North America, Hitachi plans to change manufacturing lines for rear-projection TVs in Mexico into those of flat-panel TVs, the officials said.END

Source: Jiji Press English News Service

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