Japan’s Panasonic Corp has decided to stop producing plasma television panels by March 2014 as part of its structural reform, news reports said on Wednesday.
Poor sales of flat-panel televisions were mainly blamed for Panasonic’s losses of more than 1.5 trillion yen (15.5 billion dollars) over the past two years.
The Japanese electronics company initially considered ceasing production in the next financial year, which ends March 2015, but it has decided to accelerate the timetable, the Nikkei business daily reported without citing any sources.
The company has already ended development of new plasma televisions.
South Korean makers dominate the market. Samsung Electronics Co has 51.9 per cent of the world market share in 2012, LG Electronics Inc 23.9 per cent and Panasonic 16.5 per cent, the Nikkei said, citing NPD Display Search, a market research company.
Wednesday’s media reports were not based on any official announcements by Panasonic, Kyoko Ishii, a company spokeswoman, said.
The company “has been studying various plans for the strategy of the business, but nothing has been decided,” Ishii said.
Panasonic will issue its earnings report for the July-to-September period on October 31.
In late September, Panasonic also said it had reached an agreement to sell 80 per cent of its healthcare unit Panasonic Healthcare Co to US investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co LP (KKR) for 165 billion yen.