Panasonic Group announced on September 8 that it plans to invest an additional $84 million to expand its business in Vietnam in next several years, raising its total investment in this emerging market to $224 million. With positive growth, political stability, potential capable and fast-learning labor force, Vietnam is evaluated as a potential market and one of the key focuses of Panasonic’s worldwide strategy, the company said in an announcement.
“Vietnam will become the largest refrigerator and washing machine production base of Panasonic Group in Asia,” said Shinichi Wakita, general director of Panasonic Vietnam.
Under its new investment plan, Panasonic will build a new plant producing ALIVH multi-layer resin boards for use in smartphones and other high-functionality mobile terminals within the third quarter of this year, the state-run Dau Tu newspaper reported. The plant, located at Thang Long Industrial Park in Hanoi, will have a monthly capacity of 3.5 million units after it comes into operations in August 2012, Shinichi Wakita said. This is the third overseas ALIVH production facility of Panasonic, after two in Taiwan. Panasonic has also decided to expand its refrigerator factory, built in 2003, at Thang Long Industrial Park. As scheduled, the production capacity of this plant will be doubled to 800,000 products per year in 2015 from 400,000 products in 2011 to meet local demands as well as export. Wakita said Panasonic Group would relocate a part of its refrigerator production in Thailand to Vietnam. In 2012, the group will open a new washing machine factory at Thang Long Industrial Park 2 in the northern province of Hung Yen, with production target of 700,000 sets per year in 2015, becoming the largest of its kind in Asia. A research and development (R&D) center will also be launched in the same place to develop most suitable home appliance products for Vietnamese customers. When coming into operation, the factory and R&D center in Hung Yen are expected to provide over 1,000 jobs to local workers. Wakita said with the expansion plan, Panasonic aims to become the leading brand name in the refrigerator and washing machine sections and furthermost, the leader in electronics and home appliances in Vietnam, with annual two-digit growth rate from 2011-2015. Panasonic, which had six companies - a holding company, four manufacturing companies and a high-tech R&D center with the total workforce of over 8,200 employees by August, targets revenues of $1 billion in 2011, four times higher than the figure in 2003. (Bao Dau Tu – Investment Sept 8, www.sgtt.vn [1] Sept 9, Thoi bao Ngan hang – Banking Times Sept 9 p3)
