Sharp and Sony are due to conclude an agreement by the end of July, whereby they will jointly establish an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panel manufacturing venture leveraging 10G technologies, the Nikkei reported on July 24. With an aim to share the total costs of 380 billion Yen (US$4.0 billion; US$1 = 94.9Yen), the Sharp-Sony JV - with Sharp holding a 66% stake and Sony holding the remaining 34% - will manufacture 10G glass substrates for large-area LCD panels.

Meanwhile, Sharp expects its 10G LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) plant located in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, to kick off mass production in October 2009, with an initial expected capacity of 10,000 units and gradually building up to 36,000 units per month by year-end 2009, Taiwan's Commercial Times reported on July 22. Glass substrate production from this new facility is expected to meet Sharp's plan to mass produce LCD panels for used in large-area LCD TVs with screen sizes of 40-, 50-, and 60- inches.

Sharp stated that the company will supply some large-area LCD panels manufactured in its Sakai plant to Sony, along with 32-inch and other mid-size LCD panels manufactured at its Kameyama No.2 plant, located in central Japan.