Japanese manufacturers cut domestic disc, telly production

Japanese manufacturers have started to take production abroad, with Hitachi and Mitsubishi announcing an end to their domestic arrangements for television sets and compact discs, respectively.

Hitachi's plant in Gifu, which churns-out roughly 100,000 tellies a month, will now produce projectors and chipsets instead, with both plasma and LCD production moved overseas. Price competition was highlighted as reasons for the switch.

Elsewhere, it was revealed that another popular Japanese manufacturer, Mitsubishi, had plans to do the same with its DVD and Blu-ray business.

For years the company has produced discs in various plants through Singapore and Okayama, however declining disc sales have promoted the company into cost-cutting measures, Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reports. Production will now be shifted to India and Taiwan.

Could this be the beginning of the end for the physical disc format? Last November, it was claimed the CD would face its doom before 2012 was finished. If ancient prophecies are to be believed, though, discs won't be the only thing to meet its demise this year. ®