Taiwan-based consumer-electronics manufacturer Tatung will next year start selling its flat-panel televisions in Australia and Bahrain, using its Thailand factory as its regional centre for Asean countries plus Australia and India.

The company will also start to market its flat-panel TVs, including LCD (liquid crystal display) and plasma sets, in Pakistan, India and Indonesia in 2008, according to Charlie Lan, president of Tatung (Thailand) Co Ltd.

Tatung flat-screen TVs are currently sold only in Taiwan and Thailand.

"We expect the total market for flat-panel TVs in those five markets [Australia, Bahrain, Pakistan, India and Indonesia] will jump from about 1.5

million units this year to more than 15 million units in the next five years," said Lan.

He said Indonesia, with its huge population of more than 100 million, would provide great business potential.

Tatung has an 80-rai plant in Chon Buri's Amata Nakorn Industrial Park and produces electronics products, including flat-screen TVs, for more than 10 famous brands from Japan and Europe on an OEM (original equipment manufacturing) basis. The company recently invested more than Bt80 million in its TV facility in Thailand.

"With the investment, we aimed at doubling our production capacity of flat-panel TVs from 500,000 units this year to about one million by 2007," said Lan.

The company would like to sell about 6,000 flat-panel TVs under the Tatung brand in Thailand this year.

"We also expect our local sales of flat-screen TVs to double every year," said Lan. "We also fully utilise the local people at our operation in Thailand, including the appointment of a country manager, who has a better understanding of the Thai market."

More than Bt100 million will be spent to promote awareness of Tatung flat-screen TVs among Thai consumers.

Since 1990, Tatung's Thai operation had concentrated on CRT (cathode

ray tube) TVs, CRT monitors, PCB as-sembly, LCD monitors and desktop computers. In 2003, the company started manufacturing LCD and plasma TVs.

Almost 99 per cent of local production is exported, mainly to Japan, Europe and Australia.

The overall TV market in Thailand is expected to amount to 2.2 million units this year, up 5 per cent from last year. About two million will be CRT sets, while another 200,000 will be LCD and plasma TVs.

However, Lan expects flat-screen TVs to replace CRT sets within five years.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation