Sharp plans to strengthen its foothold in the region

Dubai: Sharp, the giant Japanese electronics manufacturer, is planning for a regional expansion to strengthen its foothold in the Middle East and Africa.

The company revealed yesterday in Dubai its global brand strategy as well as details of the Kameyama 2 LCD plant in Japan the world's most advanced production facility for LCD television sets.

Tomio Isogai, Managing Director of Sharp Middle East, said that the company is projecting the sale of 500,000 LCD TVs in 2010 for the Middle East and Africa region.

"Sharp Middle East aims to reach a sales volume of $500 million in the next 3 years, enabling it to gain a 10 per cent market share in major categories," he said.

Isogai said Sharp is considering setting up collaborations with local manufacturers to start local assembly of CRT CTVs in several parts of the region.

"Sharp's plans include building closer cooperation with El-Araby factory in Egypt for local assembly of LCD TVs," he said.

"The company also plans to reopen its offices in Saudi Arabia, South Africa within three to six months and possibly within 2007 to open one in Iran," he added.

"In 2005, our net sales were almost 2.8 trillion yen [Dh89 billion], up 10.1 per cent over the previous year, with operating profit of 163.7 billion yen [Dh5.2 billion], an increase of 8.4per cent over the previous year," said Takashi Nakagawa, Sharp's corporate executive director and general manager of the International Business Group.

Profit goals

"For 2006, our goal is net sales of 3 trillion yen [Dh96 billion] and a total operating profit of 180 billion yen [Dh5.8 billion], both sales and profits are at record levels," he added.

He said the Kameyama Plant 2 is using eighth-generation glass substrates, the world's largest in size, and ideal for efficiently fabricating large LCD panels in the 40- and 50-inch range.

"This will enable us to maintain our No. 1 worldwide market share [five per cent] with sales of six million units this year.

"The new plant will give Sharp the ability to manufacture 22 million sets during 2008, calculated in 32-inch LCD TV equivalents," he added.

In November, Sharp boosted the production capacity for solar cell fabrication, the front-end process, at its Katsuragi Plant in Nara Prefecture from 500 MW to 600 MW, the world's highest.

"We are also augmenting production capacity for assembling photovoltaic modules, the back-end process, at our facilities in the US and the UK," Nakagawa said.

Retail: Growing demand for LCD TVs and solar cells

Total worldwide demand for LCD TVs is skyrocketing based on the shift to digital-format broadcasting and reductions in retail prices. In 2005, worldwide demand was 23.6 million units, up 120per cent over the previous year.

In 2006, demand is expected to grow to around 42 million units, up 80 per cent on the previous year.

Worldwide demand for solar cells in fiscal 2005 was 1,100 MW, an increase of 22.2 per cent over the previous year. Demand is projected to grow to 1,300 MW in 2006, up 18.2 per cent on the prior year.