It was able to compete just fine for large screen CRTs, and it did that
for many decades.
If CRTs were still as popular then it would not have closed.
The factory was only set up for large screen CRTs, it would have
required a completely new factory entirely for any other product.
Being able to compete *from scratch* with a different product is an
entirely seperate issue, that is not why they closed. Panasonic is not
an Australian company, so I'm sure there are other very good (internal
political) reasons why they would not set up a flat screen factory in
Australia.
Dave
The decision was dictated purely by the economics
and logistics of building flat panel display products.
With respect to Asia, FPDs (the screen themselves
along with the lamps, drivers and associated pixel
driving/decoding intelligence) are only built in a
handful of OEM factories.
It is monumentally expensive to set up a production facility
for the panels, plus quality control is crucial (far higher
than for CRTs), so fewer panel production plants allow
for concentration and more efficient use of resources.
These FPDs are shipped as kits and then turned into
the various TVs and similar apparatus by adding PSU,
tuner modules, I/O and audio stages, user interface
modules and the enclosure to form a finished product.
FPD's form most of the bulk and weight in a LCD or
Plasma TV set. To ship these down to Australia, along
with the re-tooling and re-equipping of plant would
have provided little return on investment, since the market
here is tiny compared to the rest of the big consumers.
Plus all of this investment will economically supply only
the AU/NZ/Pacific region. Export of the finished product
is uneconomic because most of the weight and bulk
has been imported in the first place - so it costs twice
as much in freight. Labour costs are not as big a factor as
people may think since automated production and goods
handling systems takes care of most of the labour.
Singapore is a good choice for an assembly plant.
It forms a regional hub, whereas AU is really an end-of-
the-line location. Raw materials, components and sub-
assemblies can flow into and back out of SNG with very
little cost impost. Land and labour can be (relatively) cheaply
sourced from Malaysia, plus SNG is already an established
shipping point for the Oceania region, the EU and the rest
of Asia. It is cheaper to ship from SNG to Perth and northern
Australia than to do so from Sydney or Melbourne.
