Sony to Double LCD TV Production at Slovakia Plant

Martyn Williams, IDG News Service

Sony plans to double the production capacity of LCD televisions at its plant in Nitra, Slovakia, it said Monday. The expansion is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year and will make the factory Sony's largest flat-panel TV production base.

Sony started making LCD (liquid crystal display) TVs in Slovakia in April 2006 when it opened a production line in Trnava, which soon reached capacity with no possibility of expansion. So Sony built and opened an LCD TV plant in nearby Nitra in August last year. Combined, the two plants represented a total capacity of 2 million sets per year.

Last year it said it would relocate the set manufacturing taking place at Trnava to Nitra and increase overall capacity to 3 million sets this year but the new plan now calls for expansion at Nitra to push total annual production capacity to 4 million TV sets.

In line with the production increase Sony will hire an additional 1,200 staff to take the total payroll to 3,500 people.

Demand for LCD TVs is growing fast around the world and companies like Sony are building new plants in different regions to handle production for local markets. The price competition in the LCD TV sector means that it's preferable to make TVs locally than import them and pass on various taxes and import duties.

Most of the sets made in Nitra will be destined for the European market. Sony has an additional LCD TV factory in Barcelona that also supplies Europe.