Major consumer-electronics companies including, Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, Samsung and Tatung, have shifted their manufacture of LCD televisions to Thailand, creating a new battlefield for flat-panel display products along with the gradual transition of local broadcasts from analogue to fully digital.

Sony and Samsung relocated their production of LCD receivers to Thailand in April, Panasonic last month.

Panasonic began production of its Viera 26- and 32-inch LCD sets at its Bang Phli plant following a Bt35-million investment. The locally produced receivers will replace Panasonic imports from Japan and China, according to Daizo Ito, chief executive officer of Panasonic Group in Thailand, a local subsidiary of Matsushita.

"Producing these in Thailand will reduce their local price by 20 per cent as we will no longer be burdened with import tariffs. This means we can sell at a competitive price against rivals such as Sony and Samsung, which have already moved their manufacturing

facilities to Thailand," said Ito, adding that Panasonic would next year begin exporting LCD sets to neighbouring markets such as Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and India.

"We expect to increase the market share of Panasonic LCD receivers in Thailand from 6 per cent to about 20 per cent by the end of October," said Ito, adding that total demand for LCD televisions in Thailand was expected to reach between 55,000 and 60,000 units this year, four times higher than the 14,000-15,000 sold last year.

Kazuo Suyama, managing director of Sony Thai Co Ltd, said  Sony had recently expanded manufacturing lines by starting new production lines of Bravia LCD receivers and Grand Wega LCD projection televisions at the Sony Technology (Thailand) factory in Ayutthaya. "We would like to retain our top share of the AV [audio-visual] market, and to do so we need cooperation and support from all our partners, such as staff, dealers and even headquarters, which helps with product development to suit local markets and expansion of production facilities for locally based factories," said Suyama.

He said that fortunately Sony's brand image was very strong and popular with consumers around the world, but to maintain or even improve that image was of course not easy, indeed challenging.

"The Sony brand has been established for almost 60 years now, and Sony has a very broad range of customers across all age groups, though the perception of Sony by each generation may be different. Therefore we cannot use 'Sony' alone to communicate with all of them: we have to focus on communicating with them through our strong sub-brands like Walkman, Vaio, Bravia, Wega, Handycam, Cybershot and PlayStation," Suyama said.

He added that all these sub-brands ultimately strengthened the Sony brand image. Sony, he said, will not go into the price game but offer high-value products that match customers' requirements at a reasonable price.

Hidenori Matsui, president of Toshiba Thailand Co Ltd, said that while sales of the firm's projection televisions were expected to decline, the company was going to catch up through a huge increase in sales of its Regza flat-panel display televisions.

"We expect our sales of flat-panel display receivers, both LCD and plasma, to jump fivefold to 5,500 units this year," said Matsui, adding that Toshiba would this year concentrate more on bigger screens with better picture quality and on other high-end products and would focus more on AV and IT products and benefit from the wide range of products it already had.

Matsui said the total market for AV products had grown by 5 per cent in the first six months of this year to Bt18 billion in sales value.

"Flat-panel display televisions are very new products, and all companies are investing in

them," said Matsui, adding that in the past 18 months the cost of panels had been falling and every manufacturer was concentrating on how to boost volume to save costs.

"Toshiba will focus on maintaining a competitive price in the market, along with innovative features," said Matsui.

He said the strengths of Toshiba were technology and innovations in product quality, picture and sound quality transferred from its headquarters in Tokyo.

"We have a long history in the development of colour televisions. The goal is to communicate our strengths to Thai consumers," said Matsui.

Charlie Lan, president of Tatung (Thailand) Co Ltd, said Tatung had been operating as an original-equipment manufacturer for more than 10 brands in Japan and Europe so that the company had extensive knowledge and experience in technology and marketing trends.

"We also have very good vertical integration capability. We also have our own panels, printed circuit boards, plastic cabinets and even remote controls. At our factory we can do everything by ourselves.

"This gives us a great advantage in the brand war as we can provide products at competitive prices on time to market," said Lan, adding that Tatung needed only six months from a product idea to a market launch.

Lan said Tatung could offer 32-inch LCD televisions with the same quality and features 30-50 per cent cheaper than its competitors.

"We also give our customers more choice. We give them both LCD and plasma receivers, quite unlike leading brands like Sony, which focuses on LCD, or Panasonic, which concentrates on plasma, because they have already invested in the technology," said Lan.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation