Foxconn and Sharp build new LCD factory for large TVs

Sakai Display Products, the joint venture of Foxconn and Sharp, is to build a major factory for the production of LCDs for televisions and monitors in China. The facility is focused on making large screens and should be operational in 2019.

The construction of the factory will cost 61 billion Chinese yuan, equivalent to 8.35 billion euros. With the facility, Sakai Display Products aims to meet the expected increase in demand for large screens in Asia, Reuters writes.

This is a so-called Gen 10.5 production facility. At Sakai Display Products’ current Japanese Gen 10 factory, operational since 2009, 3130x2880mm glass substrates roll off the assembly line. For example, eight 60″ screens can be produced from this. The next Gen 10.5 factory will use glass substrates of 3370x2940mm, from which eight 65″ screens can be obtained.

With the construction, Sakai Display Products follows the Chinese BOE Technology Group, which already started construction of a Gen 10.5 factory at the end of 2015 and is expected to come into operation in 2018. Sakai Display Products is the result of Foxconn’s acquisition of Sharp. The joint venture must, among other things, compete with Samsung. Sharp always supplied LCDs to Samsung, but Sakai Display Products will stop doing so next year.

SDP’s current Gen 10 factory in Sakai