Panasonic is set to pull out of the TV business, the move comes after another Japanese TV maker Sharp, was forced to sell their TV business to a Taiwanese Company earlier this year.
Overnight the Company has said that they will close its unprofitable television screen manufacturing business, however it is not known whether the Company will continue sourcing TV panels from LG who is already making panels for Panasonic TV’s some of which are being sold in Australia.
According to Paul Read the CEO of Panasonic Australia, the local subsidary is in the TV business for the “long haul”.
According to Reuters, a Panasonic spokeswoman said the company will stop producing TV screens at its plant in Himeji, western Japan, by the end of September.
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The plant, where production began in 2010, has never logged a profit during years of heavy price competition with South Korean and Chinese rivals.
The decision to close the business comes after Panasonic scrapped a company-wide revenue target of $90.1 billion for the year through March 2019 to focus on profitability.
Its Himeji plant will continue to produce screens for vehicle dashboards and medical equipment, but output will drop to a quarter of the current 810,000 units a month in terms of 32-inch panels, Panasonic said.
The Nikkei business daily reported on the closure earlier in the day yesterday, Panasonic shares closed 3.6 percent higher on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. By comparison, the benchmark Nikkei index ended up 1.0 percent.
More to follow.
