China TV maker Skyworth aims to double LCD sales

HONG KONG, July 9 (Reuters) - China's top colour TV maker Skyworth Digital Holdings (0751.HK) said on Thursday that its LCD TV sales should nearly double in its current fiscal year, even as overall unit sales decline, as it focuses on higher-end models.

The company expects to ship up to around 4.8 million LCD televisions, up sharply from the 24.76 million a year earlier as the thinner TVs gain popularity and China takes steps to stimulate consumption during the global slowdown.

LCD TVs will account for more than half the 8.2 million total TVs the company is aiming to ship in its current fiscal year, which runs through the end of March, down from 91.52 million TVs in the previous fiscal year.

"We're not pursuing volume above all else, we're most concerned with profitability," said Chairman and chief executive Zhang Xuebin. "We want to make high-end products."

Zhang added that traditional cathode ray tube (CRT) TVs only represented about 20 percent of sales in April and May, the first two months of Skyworth's fiscal year.

The company sold 1.06 million colour TVs during that period, down 25 percent.

Zhang made his comments a day after Skyworth reported a net profit of HK$460 million ($59 million) for its most recent fiscal year through March, nearly unchanged from the previous year. Sales for the most recent year grew 12 percent to HK$15.33 billion.

Skyworth competes in China with other major players such as TCL Multimedia (1070.HK), Konka Group (000016.SZ) and Sichuan Changhong Electric (600839.SS)

(Reporting by David Lin; writing by Doug Young; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)