Sharp Corp has suspended production in Japan of large-sized LCD panels because of a shortfall of industrial gas after a massive earthquake and tsunami.
The Osaka-based company is one of the world’s largest makers of LCD TVs and panels.
Spokeswoman Miyuki Nakayama says the company has decided to focus on making smaller panels — under 10 inches — because it has a stockpile of larger ones.
Nakayama said yesterday that production had already halted at the two factories in Japan where the bigger panels are made. She would not specify when it stopped, but said it was expected to resume early next month.
Nakayama’s remarks came after the Nikkei Shimbun newspaper reported earlier yesterday that Sharp will idle its Kameyama plant in southwestern Mie Prefecture and its Sakai plant in western Osaka until after the Golden Week holiday season early next month.
It has not been specified what kind of gases were involved, but disruptions across the supply chain have hit manufacturers all over Japan in the wake of last month’s disaster.
The shutdown, which began earlier this month, is not expected to affect Sharp’s LCD TV output because it has a month’s worth of panel inventory, the paper reported, without citing sources.
The Kameyama plant has a monthly output capacity of LCD panels equivalent to 1.8 million 32-inch TVs and the Sakai plant has a monthly capacity of 1.3 million 40-inch TVs, the Nikkei said.
Sharp expects to be able to secure supplies of industrial gas in about a month, it said.
Separately, Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子), Taiwan biggest LCD panel maker, said on Friday it shipped 32.3 million large-sized LCD panels in the first quarter, down 4.1 percent from the fourth quarter, Dow Jones Newswires reported.
Chimei, an affiliate of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also said it shipped 101 million small and medium-sized LCD panels in the first quarter, down 17.6 percent from the previous quarter.
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