Apparently Sony is getting frustrated with managing all its business in Japan and is looking to make a clean break. At least that’s what’s being claimed in the Asahi paper this week. Sony will not be moving everything, just the actual production of cell phones and batteries. According to the report, they will be heading for China and/or Singapore.
Sony has in plan to convert the Tochigi Prefecture lithium ion battery factory into a research facility and adding another 500 workers, the paper brought to the readers’ attention. Sony is also reviewing offices down in Fukushima Prefecture, where the production came to a halt after the devastating earthquakes last year. It has been speculated that after the Fukushima disaster, the production could not return to the usual flow, so Sony had to devise another plan. If left to their own devices the Fukushima divisions called the Koriyama and Motomiya will be limited to the production of electrodes which are a major part of determining battery performance.
Sony also provides batteries for other companies like Dell, HP or Toshiba so the possibility of increasing prices or the lack of availability would cause a massive chaos in the whole electronic industry. Maybe the yen who has always been strong, contributed as well to pressuring firms to move their manufacturing capacity overseas. Thus Sony is just following a trend.
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