Sharp aims to double European LCD market share

BERLIN Aug 30 (Reuters) - Japan's Sharp Corp (6753.T), which has been struggling with capacity constraints, wants to double its LCD market share in Europe within the next three years, the head of Sharp Electronics GmbH said on Thursday.

Sharp, which dominates its domestic market with its Aquos brand LCD TVs, hopes to meet its targets in Europe thanks to a brand new production plant in Poland, that took up operations on Tuesday.

"Europe is quite a challenging market," Toshiyuki Tajima said ahead of the IFA electronics trade fair, which opens to the public on Friday in Berlin. "We want to double our market share there in about three years' time to 12-15 percent," he added.

The site in Poland, which manufactures Aquos TVs and LCD modules, is its second production unit in Europe after Spain.

Over 40 percent of all TVs marketed worldwide are sold in Europe and LCD TV demand there rose 50 percent in 2007 to 27 million LCD TVs, Sharp said.

LCD, or liquid crystal display, is a popular type of flat-panel display technology most often sold as personal computer monitors. But LCD TV makers are increasingly offering larger-size TVs encroaching on a market dominated by plasma models.

Tajima said Sharp was looking east for more market share as well as countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia were recording high growth rates for sales of LCD TVs.

However, he said the company did not want to enter a price war with rivals.

"We are not trying to buy market share with money," Tajima said.