Sony Corp. will invest roughly 100 billion yen to build a new manufacturing plant in Kumamoto Prefecture to meet strong demand for electronic devices, the company announced on Wednesday.
Sony will manufacture small liquid-crystal displays and charge-coupled device image sensors at the plant, which is expected to start operation in October 2001.
The seven-story plant is to be operated by some 300 workers and built on a 149,409-sq.-meter site in an industrial complex in Kikuyo, Kumamoto Prefecture.
The investment for the proposed factory will come to about 10 billion yen for the current business year and a total around 100 billion yen by the end of fiscal 2005, Sony said.
Demand for such electronic devices is strong. Small LCDs are used for such products as data projectors and camcorders, while CCD image sensors are used for both digital still cameras and camcorders.
The Sony group plans to make investments of more than 200 billion yen on facilities and equipment during the current business year, according to the company.