Japan's Sharp Corp said on Thursday it was looking for a partner to assemble its liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions in Europe in a bid to boost its sales in the region. Sharp, which competes with Sony Corp, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Philips in the $44.5 billion global LCD TV market, said it is already in contact with potential partners.
Sharp's Aquos-brand LCD TVs have met strong demand in Japan. But it is becoming increasingly important for the Osaka-based electronics maker to strengthen its overseas operations as flat TV sales pick up pace elsewhere.
Sharp expects its LCD TV sales in Europe to grow 70 percent to 1.6 million units in the year to next March. That compares with its estimate for growth of 26 percent in its Japan sales.
"As we make our push into Europe, our current output capacity is just not enough," Sharp Corporate Executive Director Takashi Nakagawa told a gathering of reporters. Nakagawa is in charge of Sharp's overseas operations. The company already runs its own TV assembly plant in Spain for the European market.
Sharp last month started production at a cutting-edge LCD panel factory in Kameyama, western Japan. The factory, Sharp's second in Kameyama, is the world's first to cut panels from eighth-generation glass substrates, which can yield eight 40-inch class panels apiece, compared with just three panels from the sixth-generation substrates used at the first Kameyama plant.
Armed with cost-efficient panels from the new plant, Sharp is now gearing up to boost its presence in the US and European markets. Nakagawa said he was aiming for 15 percent of the overseas LCD TV market in the business year starting April 2007, up from an estimated 10 percent this business year.
Sharp lost its place as the world's top seller of LCD TVs by units late last year, when demand began to outpace its production capacity. Sony, which offers Bravia-brand flat TVs, is the biggest LCD TV maker by revenue. Shares in Sharp ended the day down 2.4 percent at 2,010 yen, slightly underperforming the Tokyo stock market's electrical machinery index IIELEC, which fell 2.0 percent.