APRIL 2008 W5 ALERT
Matsushita Sets Aggressive Targets to Take #3 Worldwide Market Share Ranking
<Nikkei-TOKYO><April 27, 2008>Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. has set very aggressive sales targets for its plasma and LCD TV business in order to take over third place in overall worldwide market share behind Sony Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co.
Saying it will increase its overall flat panel TV sales by more than 40%, Matsushita is planning to sell more than 6 million units of plasma TVs and more than 5 million units of LCD TV.
To achieve the shipment of over 11 million flat panel sets, Matsushita is increasing production at its factories in both Russia and China. They are also pushing to expand their sales network in the United States.
In fiscal year 2007, Matsushita shipped about 8 million units for a 30% increase over the previous year. However, this was short of their target of 9 million units, primarily as a result of panel shortages.
Matsushita has addressed the panel issue by planning to make large investments in LCD panel production. Matsushita has also partnered with Pioneer to boost its production of plasma panels.
Sony is also said to be bullish on flat panel TVs for fiscal year 2008 and plans to expand sales by more than 50% to 15 million units.