Toshiba to produce TV sets in Indonesia

JAKARTA (JP): Toshiba Corporation of Japan and Toshiba Singapore Pte. Ltd. will together establish a new company near here to produce color television sets to meet the increasing demand on the global market.

Toshiba Corporation said in a statement yesterday that the new company, to be called PT Toshiba Consumers Product (Indonesia), will have an initial capital of US$15.6 million, two thirds of which will be subscribed by Toshiba Singapore and one third by the Toshiba Corporation.

Capital investment for site construction and the procurement of manufacturing equipment will amount to some $42 million by March 1998.

This August the new company will start the construction of a 25,000-square-meter manufacturing facility on a 124,000-square- meter site in the East Jakarta Industrial Park, 40 kilometers east of Jakarta.

Construction will be completed in April 1996 and production of 14-inch and 20-inch color television sets is expected to start in June 1996 at a capacity of 400,000 units per year.

Initial employment will be 350, rising to 1,000 in 1997, when the production capacity will be more than doubled to one million sets annually.

The plant's production will be marketed domestically and exported to other Asian countries, North and South America, eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The Indonesian market of television sets this year is expected to grow by 25 percent to 1.5 million units.

Toshiba has production facilities for color television sets in various regions. Its production in Asia will reach 1.3 million sets this year, an increase of 400,000 units over the previous year, with Toshiba Singapore playing the major role.

Toshiba has also established a joint venture company, PT Tosummit Electronics Devices Indonesia, to manufacture color picture tubes in the East Jakarta Industrial Park, beginning in September 1996.

The statement said Toshiba selected Indonesia as the home for the new company because of its importance as a fast growing market, its proximity to Singapore, which enables Toshiba Singapore to extend full assistance to the new company, the ready availability of a qualified work force and the high production efficiency that can be achieved by sourcing color picture tubes from PT Tosummit Electronics Devices Indonesia.

Toshiba also said it planned to strengthen its partnership with PT Topjaya, its local manufacturer and distributor in Indonesia. (31)