Sony increasing sourcing from Taiwan

Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony Corp said yesterday it was increasing sourcing from Taiwanese manufacturers of computers, game consoles and liquid-crystal-display (LCD) TV panels to cut costs.

"I deeply believe the partnership between Taiwan and Sony will deepen," said Kenji Sakai, chairman and managing director of Sony's Taiwan branch.

"We have recently increased our purchase of LCD panels for TVs, making Taiwan an important partner of our Bravia [TV] series," he said, while declining to disclose the size of the order.

Sony mainly buys TV panels from the nation's top flat-panel manufacturer, AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), with Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) serving as a secondary source, market researcher DisplaySearch said in its latest report.

LCD TV order

The Austin, Texas-based researcher also forecast that Sony would farm out more LCD TV manufacturing orders to Taiwanese companies such as Qisda Corp (佳世達) and Wistron Corp (緯創), which are expected to supply mainstream 32-inch and 40-inch TVs.

"Saving cost is the main reason," David Hsieh (謝勤益), a DisplaySearch vice president in charge of the Greater China market, said by telephone.

Next year, Sony may speed up TV outsourcing, which may then account for 10 percent of its total TV shipments, up from less than 5 percent in the third quarter of this year, Hsieh said.

Overall, global TV vendors are expected to outsource at least 30 percent of their total TV shipments, compared with roughly 25 percent this quarter, to save on costs, Hsieh said.

high hopes

DisplaySearch projected that demand for LCD TVs would grow 53 percent to about 111 million units next year from an estimated 72.5 million this year.

"We have high hopes for LCD TVs next year with the [Beijing] Olympic Games taking place and more high-definition content fueling demand," said Naofumi Hara, a senior vice president at Sony, in a press briefing in Taipei.