Three Japanese companies Toshiba, Hitachi and Sony will reportedly set up a joint venture to make small/medium-sized liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, aiming at becoming the world“s largest make…
Three Japanese companies Toshiba, Hitachi and Sony will reportedly set up a joint venture to make small/medium-sized liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, aiming at becoming the world“s largest maker of panels and threaten counterparts in Taiwan and South Korea. The three parties are expected to set up a new LCD panel plant in Japan as early as the end of this year. Innovation Network Corp., a Japanese government-funded company, is considering to invest about JPY 200 billion (USD 2.5 billion) in the project for a 70% stake, with the three companies sharing the remaining 30%. According to industry sources, the technical cooperation between Hitachi and Taiwanese partners Hon Hai Group and Chimei Innolux Corp., who makes thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels for Hitachi, will not be affected by these inter-party agreements. The Japanese government tried to mediate the venture because of fierce competition from Taiwanese and Korean players to prevent Japan“s LCD industry from defeat by foreign players, which would be a repeat of the nation“s previous experience in large-sized (over 10-inch) LCD panel business. Samsung of Korea now has 17.9% and ChiMei Innolux of Taiwan about 12.5% in the global small/medium sized LCD panel segment, with the combined share of the Japanese venture to reach 14.1%.