Taiwan Today

Japan’s Sony Corp., the world’s third largest LCD TV manufacturer, announced Sept. 1 it will sell its North American LCD assembly plant to Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. The company said it will sell 90 percent of its shares of Sony Baja California, located in Tijuana, Mexico, to Hon Hai and keep the remaining 10 percent. According to Sony spokeswoman Mami Imada, this is the first part of the company’s restructuring plan in an effort to reduce assets and fixed costs. Sony did not reveal the financial terms of the deal. Hon Hai spokesman Edmund Ding said they are still negotiating the price and hammering out the details. Hon Hai, the world’s largest contract maker of electronics, is aiming to seize the LCD market. “The deal is part of our long-term strategic alliance with Sony. Gaining market access to LCD TV is very important for us. We hope to absorb the experiences of the Sony Tijuana unit,” Ding said. Sony’s Baja California plant, on the border between Mexico and the United States, has been the main supplier of Sony’s Bravia TV. Its 3,300 employees will be retained by Hon Hai. Some analysts think this move is a signal that Sony will retreat entirely as a manufacturer from North America, the number one LCD TV war zone, and start outsourcing. "The Mexico site is Sony’s main TV production base and selling it suggests the company may be selling other smaller sites," said Kota Ezawa, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. in Tokyo. The global LCD TV market is undergoing a wave of changes. Samsung, Sony’s contract supplier for panel boards, has decided to sell its old “six-generation” LCD production line to Chinese manufacturers. Meanwhile, another Japanese company, Sharp, has moved its eighth-generation panel board production base to mainland China. (LC-THN)