Toshiba Corp will introduce a line of low-cost television models next month in an effort to double sales to ¥40 billion (US$476 million) in Southeast Asia, the head of the TV unit said.
The company, whose products range from nuclear power plants to semiconductors to home appliances, has set a sales target of 1.2 million TVs in the region in the 12 months starting in April, rising from about half a million sets this fiscal year, Masaaki Oosumi, president of Toshiba’s Visual Products Co, said at a briefing at its Tokyo headquarters yesterday.
Toshiba is counting on sales of lower-priced flat-panel TVs in Asia next year to help offset an anticipated plunge in domestic demand after the expiration of Japanese government subsidies designed to boost consumer spending, Oosumi said.
US$190 MODELS
Production of the new models started this month at a plant in Jakarta, Indonesia, and sales in Southeast Asia will begin next month, with 24-inch models priced at US$190.
“The entire industry, not just Toshiba, is betting on developing markets,” Oosumi said.
Toshiba rose 2.8 percent to ¥436 at the 3pm close on the Tokyo Stock Exchange before the announcement. The stock has fallen 15 percent this year, worse than the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average’s 4 percent decline.
The company is forecasting total sales of ¥7 trillion in the 12 months ending March. It sold 10 million TVs worldwide last fiscal year.
The push in Southeast Asia is part of Toshiba’s larger plan to boost TV sales in emerging markets, where South Korean competitors Samsung Electronics Co and LG Electronics Inc are stronger, Oosumi said.
Toshiba aims to increase its market share in Southeast Asia to 20 percent in the year ending March 2012 from 10 percent at present, Oosumi said.
The company’s current markets in that region include Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore.
DISTRIBUTION
“We have strong distribution channels in our home appliances business that we’ve built up over the last 30 years,” Oosumi said. “I’m confident we’ll be able to double our market share.”
The new line-up features a battery-powered model called the PC1, designed for markets where electric power is unstable.
The TV, which Toshiba bills as the first of its kind, has a maximum battery life of two hours, and many of the sets have a more sensitive antenna for areas where TV signals are weak, the company said.
Toshiba will start construction at its Jakarta plant in March to increase capacity to eight production lines from the current six, Oosumi said. The expansion will cost as much ¥1 billion, he said.
The electronics maker is also in negotiations with an Egyptian partner to begin TV production in that country as early as March, he said, confirming a report yesterday by NHK, Japan’s public broadcaster.
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