Sharp to ship world's biggest LCD display for sale

TOKYO, June 13 (Reuters) - Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp (6753.T) said on Friday it would begin shipping next month the world's largest liquid crystal display, a reminder of the once-heated race for size among TV makers.

The 108-inch display, priced at roughly 11 million yen ($102,100), would be made to order and sold mainly to businesses, Sharp said.

Last year, TV makers vied to make bigger displays in a show of technological prowess as they sought to beat price competition with premium big screens.

Sharp's new display is likely to be surpassed next year when Matsushita Electric Industrial Co (6752.T) plans sales of its 150-inch plasma display for use on billboards.

Weak demand for big TVs hurt manufacturers such as Hitachi Ltd (6501.T) and Pioneer Corp (6773.T), which posted losses on their TV operations because they lacked economies of scale to weather price falls for smaller TVs in high demand.

Sharp, which had originally planned to focus on bigger displays, shifted more weight to 40-inch class displays and smaller in the middle of last year.

Shares of Sharp closed up 1.7 percent at 1,712 yen against a 0.6 percent rise in the benchmark Nikkei average .N225. (Reporting by Mayumi Negishi; Editing by Hugh Lawson)