Demand for TV receivers to rise

BEKASI, West Java (JP): Demand for television receivers will increase to 2.5 million units in 1998, 38.8 percent higher than the demand in 1995, a Toshiba executive said yesterday.

"Our new factories have therefore been established to tap the growing market," said Fumio Sato, president of Toshiba Corp. of Japan, at the inauguration of three Toshiba joint-venture plants.

Minister of Industry and Trade Tunky Ariwibowo yesterday simultaneously inaugurated PT Tosummit Electronic Devices Indonesia, PT Toshiba Consumer Products Indonesia and PT Toshiba Metal Parts Indonesia.

Tosummit Electronic produces 14 and 20-inch color-picture tubes and has an annual capacity of 2.3 million tubes for Toshiba Consumer Products' TV sets. Toshiba Metal Parts manufactures metal components such as flames, inner-shields and holders for Tosummit Electronic's tubes, Sato said.

He said Toshiba Consumer Products was designed with an annual production capacity of one million sets.

Tosummit Electronic's president Hirofumi Kakiuchi said that once his plant begins operating at full capacity in 1998, Indonesia will be able to save US$100 million which otherwise would have been spent on imported picture tubes.

Tunky said the new facilities would strengthen the structure of the electronics industry by reducing the reliance of local companies on imported electronic components.

"The total investment of the three plants is estimated at $146.89 million, of which Tosummit Electronic, as the biggest project, accounted for $100 million," Sato added.

The Toshiba television-tube plant is the second such facility in the country.

The first television-tube factory was PT Lucky-Goldstar Electronics Display Devices Indonesia, a fully-owned subsidiary of Lucky-Goldstar Group of South Korea, which was opened in June by President Soeharto at Cibitung, West Java.

With an initial investment of $250 million, PT Lucky-Goldstar is producing several varieties of television components such as video cassette recorders, computer monitors and depletion yokes.

Tosummit Electronic, founded in 1995, is a joint venture which is 35 percent owned by PT Tabung Gambar Indonesia, 28 percent by Toshiba Corporation and 22 percent by Sumitomo Corporation.

Toshiba Metal Parts, founded in 1995, is a joint venture between Toshiba Metal Parts Corporation, which owns 81 percent of the equity, and Sumitomo Corp., with 19 percent.

Toshiba Consumer Products, set up early this year 1996, is a joint venture between Toshiba Singapore Pte. Ltd, which holds two thirds of the total shares, and Toshiba Corporation with the remaining one third. (06)