High-tech TVs new guide to China's economy
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-10-03 09:57 Faced with a 44.6-percent anti-dumping tariff that the European Union
slapped on TV imports from China, many domestic TV makers reacted by expanding
their overseas production bases, said Han Facai, a spokesman of Shenzhen-based
Konka.
Konka set up production centers in Mexico, Indonesia, Turkey and
Thailand. "Our overseas facilities are now capable of producing three million TV
sets a year and might soon surpass our Shenzhen headquarters in terms of
output," said Han.
Changhong, a former military radar equipment factory
in the hinterland of Sichuan Province, southwest China, set up a new production
center in the Czech Republic, a 100-million-U.S.-dollar workshop that is
designed to produce at least one million flat-screen TVs a year -- most of which
will be sold in the European market.
"Many other domestic companies
have worked out ways to deal with trade barriers - for example, exporting spares
instead of complete TV sets, or collaborating with overseas companies to produce
Chinese brands," said Yu Zhipu, secretary general of the home appliance branch
of China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery Electronics
Products.
Technological barriers
Chinese TV makers' success in the international market was built on the back
of cheap, low-tech cathode-ray tube (CRT) models that still make up more than 80
percent of China's TV output, says an industry analyst.
"In the world's wealthier economies, CRT technology is losing ground fast to
snazzier, more complicated technologies such as liquid-crystal (LCD), plasma,
and rear-projection digital-light processing (DLP) models," says Shen Wenjian, a
Zhejiang University professor and consultant for Haier Group.
The companies that dominate these high-tech categories are the traditional
big-name brands such as Sharp, Panasonic, Samsung and Philips. American personal
computer giants Dell and Hewlett-Packard have also entered the competition.
"Chinese companies will not sit back and watch their international rivals
dominate the market," said Prof. Shen. "Technological transformation is a
difficult and painstaking process but it is an irreversible trend."
The more lucrative high-tech TVs may also offer a
lifeline to domestic TV makers that are struggling to survive on meager profits,
a result of suicidal price cuts in recent years.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
|
