Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd, which owns the Panasonic brand, said yesterday in Shanghai that it would set up its first cordless phone manufacturing plant in China in 2006 following its huge investment project in the country announced on Monday.
"We have a detailed project to shift some cordless phone manufacturing to the country to penetrate the potential Chinese market. We will probably make such phones here as early as 2006," said Shigehiko Kaneko, president of Panasonic Communications Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Matsushita Electric.
But he declined to disclose more details such as the plant's location and investment.
On Monday, Matsushita Electric said it had invested 1.9 billion yuan (US$228.91 million) to build a home appliance equipment manufacturing plant in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. The plant, which will occupy 270,000 square meters, is expected to start operation by next October.
Meanwhile, the company also predicted its revenue in the Chinese market will hit 1 trillion yen (US$9 billion) in fiscal 2007, double the company's revenue in the country last year.
Panasonic Communications also launched seven digital cordless phones in the Chinese market yesterday, with an average price of 700 to 800 yuan.
"Currently, cordless phones occupy a very small portion in the market of  more than 300 million fixed-line phones in China. But the demand is growing with the raising of the Chinese consumption level," said Luan Guiyuan, vice general manager of Xinkai Digital Co Ltd, the distributor for Panasonic Communications' products.
Compared with traditional fixed-line phones, digital cordless phones provide people with more functions such as contact books and cassette recorders.