Further price cuts on plasma color TVs
25/2/2003 17:50
Qingdao Hisense Electric Company Limited will sell its Plasma color TV
models at the Shanghai Guomei Electronics Appliances and Suning Electric
Appliances centers this weekend, with prices on 42-inch models cut from 39,800
yuan (US$4,795) to 29,800 yuan, the Shanghai Morning Post reported
today.
The move is a bid to seize a larger share of the high-end color TV
market, said a spokesman with the Qingdao Hisense Electric Sales Co Ltd. They
will supply 500 Plasma color TVs to Shanghai for the sale, he
said.
Hisense is not alone, said a spokesman with the Nanjing Suning
Electric Appliances Group.
Skyworth, TCL and Daewoo have all slashed the
prices of their Plasma color TVs by more than 25 percent, with Skyworth's
42-inch model down from 29,800 yuan to 28,000 yuan and 42-inch LG and Panasonic
models down to some 40,000 yuan, the spokesman indicated.
Sony (China)
Limited, the color TV giant, announced that it would sell 42-inch Plasma color
TV models in China this spring, with prices expected to reach around 55,000
yuan.
Three years ago, only six or seven factories in China could produce
Plasma color TVs, but this year over 20 can do so. Some 15,000 Plasma color TVs
were sold last year and the number is expected to reach 50,000 this
year.
Plasma color TVs made in China, South Korea and Japan have
dominated the domestic Plasma TV market, with prices reaching around 29,800
yuan, 36,000 yuan and 45,000-50,000 yuan respectively, said an industry
analyst.
Plasma color TV prices are expected to drop by 5-10 percent
around May this year when a batch of Plasma TV models are exported to China, the
analyst said.
Wendy Zhang/ Shanghai Daily news
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