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Toshiba Vietnam could move LCD operation to Indonesia
Toshiba is considering moving its Vietnamese liquid crystal display (LCD) television factory to Indonesia, but it is unclear whether or not a decision has been made yet.
“Indonesia will be the only production base for Toshiba LCD TV in Asia and Oceania,” president director PT Toshiba Consumer Product Indonesia, Yuzo Tsuchiya, was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying.
Shinji Terasawa, Toshiba Vietnam’s General Director, refused to give details about the relocation, saying it was an issue to be taken up with Toshiba’s headquarters.
However, Yuko Sughara from Toshiba Corporate’s Communications Office indicated the company was still on the fence about the decision.
"We are discussing the possibility of ending production at [Toshiba Vietnam] but nothing has been decided yet, including the timing.”
A source from Toshiba Vietnam who requested anonymity said the rumor had spread and worried the firm’s staff and customers as it is nearly prime consumption season, which hits in the run up to the Tet holidays, beginning February 14 this year.
Toshiba, which makes TVs at its Ho Chi Minh City factory, may procure televisions from other group units and keep the plant’s sales and marketing functions, Sugahara said. Toshiba didn’t disclose the number of people employed at its Vietnam plant, she said.
Separately, Nikkei newspaper reported on Wednesday that Toshiba planed to close a domestic flash-memory chip assembly factory. Hiroki
Yamazaki, a spokesman at Toshiba, Japan’s largest maker of memory chips, declined to comment on the report.
However, according the Jakarta Post, the relocation of the firm’s factory from Vietnam to Indonesia was expected to boost monthly production by over 50 percent to 100,000 units this year. The report said the product would be marketed in the region.
The firm would increase the number of workers employed from 750 to 1,200 people as it has invested some US$156.6 million in Indonesia since it opened shop there in 1995, said the newspaper.
The newspaper did not mention any changes in the firm’s other operations.
With Vietnamese partner Viettronics Thu Duc Company, Toshiba established Toshiba Vietnam in HCMC in 1996. In 2006, Toshiba bought Vietnam’s stakes in the company, making it fully-foreign owned.
Minh Quang
thanhnien
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