Sharp To Stop Making LCDs At Osaka Plant

Sharp Corp. has announced it will halt production of large liquid crystal display panels by the end of September at its plant in Osaka Prefecture, the only television LCD panel manufacturing factory in Japan, Mainichi Japan reported.

The sole operator of an LCD television panel factory in the country plans to transform the facility, run by its wholly-owned subsidiary Sakai Display Products Corp., into a data center. I Photo: Sharp USA

The sole operator of an LCD television panel factory in the country plans to transform the facility, run by its wholly-owned subsidiary Sakai Display Products Corp., into a data center.

The decision comes as Sharp, a unit of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., incurred a net loss for the second straight business year ended March due to its struggling LCD panel operation in the face of intensified competition with Chinese and other rivals.

The manufacturer of home electronics, office equipment, and electronic devices booked a net loss of 149.98 billion yen ($958 million) on sales of 2.32 trillion yen, down 8.9%.

The company also announced its midterm business plans, aiming to streamline part of its electronic device business in addition to the LCD production and strengthen its home appliance and office equipment businesses by incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.