Funai Electric, Taiwan’s Chi Mei Join Hands Over LCD TV Panels

By Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Feb. 15–OSAKA — Funai Electric Co. said Wednesday it will tie up with the Taiwan-based Chi Mei Group in a bid to secure a stable supply of liquid crystal display TV panels amid growing demand for the product.

Funai will lend $400 million (about 46 billion yen) to Chi Mei for five years so that the Taiwanese LCD panel manufacturer can beef up its panel production capacity.

The Japanese audio-visual equipment maker plans to triple its sales of LCD TVs to about 1.8 million units in fiscal 2006 from the 600,000 units estimated for fiscal 2005. At present, Chi Mei’s panels account for more than 90 percent of LCD panels used in TV products made by Funai.

Funai also plans to launch a series of new products using LCD panels this spring.

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