FHP To Halt PDP Production At 2nd Plant

By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 9/19/2007

Tokyo — Fujitsu Hitachi Plasma Display (FHP), a subsidiary of Hitachi, said it will halt production at its second plasma display (PDP) plant in October to focus production on its more modern third plant, which opened in late 2006, according to a report on the Nikkei News Service.

The company said it will stop PDP production at the second plant, which produces 37-inch, 42-inch, 55-inch and 60-inch PDPs, in favor of the more efficient third plant, which produces 42- and 50-inch PDPs. Both plants are located at the company’s Miyazaki Works.

The second plant is an old facility that had been operating prior to formation of FHP.

Nikkei reported that Hitachi plans shipments of 2.5 million PDP TVs for fiscal 2008 (April 2008 to March 2009). The third plant was said to be “well capable” of supplying as many PDPs as necessary to meet the goal.

In the shift, Nikkei said FHP will consider terminating the production of 37-inch and some other models, which are losing market share to LCD TVs.

As a result of the production halt at the second plant, Hitachi said it will incur $130 million loss. The company lowered its net income estimate for the April to September 2007 term by $86 million, but maintained its consolidated sales estimate of $42.6 billion (3.8 percent year-on-year growth) and an operating income estimate of $775 million (a 354.5 percent increase). Hitachi said it now expects a net loss of $301 million, Nikkei reported.