Matsushita, Toray Team on $1.5B Japanese Plasma Display Plant

Online staff -- Electronic News, 1/10/2006

Osaka, Japan-based electronics giant Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. has teamed with chemical provider Toray Industries Inc. to build a new plasma display panel (PDP) manufacturing facility in Japan, making the facility the fourth in the companies’ PDP joint venture, Matsushita PDP Company Ltd. (MPDP).

With an investment of $1.5 billion (180 billion yen), the PDP plant will be situated next to MPDP’s third PDP plant in Amagasaki, Japan, with a planned production capacity of 6 million panels per year, on the basis of 42-inch screen-size panels.

MPDP said it would start construction in May with production scheduled to commence in July 2007.

When it reaches its full capacity by March 2009, the companies said the total PDP output should reach 11.1 million panels per year.

In addition to three other MPDP plants, two of which are located in Ibaraki, Japan and one in Amagasaki, Matsushita runs Shanghai Matsushita Plasma Display Co. Ltd. in China.

“The new plant will employ state-of-the-art process technologies and production systems that are more advanced than those of the third plant in Amagasaki, which began production in September 2005,” explained Ken Morita, president of MPDP, in a statement.

“The new systems and technologies will bring greater mass production efficiencies to the whole process while ensuring higher quality. Our new process technology allows a single substrate to yield up to eight 42-inch panels, the highest number in the world,” he continued.

“According to a comprehensive production strategy aimed at further enhancing production efficiencies in all PDP plants, each production line will be specialized by screen size. As a result, MPDP will be able to supply PDPs with more speed and flexibility to meet the surging world demand,” Morita added.

The companies also said the PDP market originated in Japan, which has quickly evolved into a huge global market driven by the worldwide trend towards digital high-definition broadcasting. Demand for PDPs in North America and Europe now far exceeds demand in Japan, they said.

The growing market in China – the host country of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games – is also poised to outpace the growth in Japan.

The demand in Japan for crisp and clear picture, large-screen plasma TVs is expected to be pushed by nationwide expansion of digital terrestrial broadcasting expected by the end of this year and the cessation of analog broadcasting by 2011.

In other regions, such as Southeast Asia, PDP demand is expected to develop as digital broadcast infrastructure is built.

“As plasma has technical advantages in producing large panels not only in terms of performance but also production and cost efficiencies, PDPs will gain more popularity as a multipurpose display for business, educational and medical applications as well as home theater use,” Morita continued.

Matsushita anticipates the global PDP market will expand to 25 million panels by 2010, and with its annual output capacity of over 11 million panels, the company said it aims to be the world’s top manufacturer of PDPs by enhancing its global share to over 40 percent.

Positioning PDP as one of their core businesses, the companies concluded that they are committed to running MPDP together and making a significant contribution to the progress of the audio-visual industry on a global scale.