Sharp Corp, Japan's largest maker of liquid-crystal displays and mobile phones, will double production of large-sized LCD screens next month, two months ahead of schedule, to meet demand for its Aquos flat-panel televisions.
The new line at the Kameyama factory in central Japan will double Sharp's large-screen output to 30,000 glass substrates a month, the Osaka-based company said yesterday. The glass plates can each make eight 40-inch panels or six 50-inch screens.
President Katsuhiko Machida is extending Sharp's lead as the biggest profit generator in the US$44 billion global LCD market by producing larger, high-definition screens more efficiently than rivals. The company in October raised its annual sales forecast for LCD panels to ¥1.03 trillion (US$8.7 billion) from a previous projection for ¥980 billion.
Sharp began production at Kameyama in August, becoming the first company to operate a so-called eighth-generation line that makes the large screens. Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co, the world's largest maker of LCD panels, plans to begin production at its eighth-generation plant during the second half of next year.
Sharp, ranked by researcher DisplaySearch below Royal Philips Electronics NV and Samsung in global LCD TV sales, is focusing on gaining market share overseas. The company is doubling its advertising budget to promote its Aquos TV sets in markets outside of Japan, the company said in September.
Sharp gets about 22 percent of sales from LCD panels, and about 40 percent from the division that makes the LCD TVs and mobile phones.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS