Sony to increase procurements from Taiwan to US$6b

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on March 29, 2006. It reports that the Sony Corp. will procure US$6 billion worth of products in Taiwan in 2006. It will be an increase from the figure of US$5.2 billion in 2004, and will keep Sony as the third-biggest foreign buyer of Taiwan-made information-technology (IT) products.

Sony plans to ship more than five million liquid-crystal display (LCD) TVs in 2006, in order to compete with Sharp for the title of the world's largest LCD-TV supplier. However, Sony is having difficulty meeting demand for the TV panels, even with the help of its LCD joint venture with South Korea's Samsung. This is why Sony has decided to increase outsourcing to Taiwanese suppliers. It is expected that Sony's procurements of Taiwan-made LCD panels in 2006 will focus on sub-40 inch products, including 32-inch, 26-inch and 20-inch screens.

At present, Sony is the world's second-largest supplier of consumer electronics, trailing only Philips. In recent years, Sony has procured a wide range of consumer electronics from Taiwanese suppliers, including LCD panels, game consoles, personal computers, and other components. In 2000, Sony's outsourcing to Taiwan only amounted to US$300 million.

In 2005, the top five foreign buyers of Taiwan-made IT products were Hewlett-Packard (HP), Dell, Sony, Apple and IBM. HP's procurement value was US$18 billion, while Dell's was US$8 billion.