Matsushita invests P1.75B more in RP

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., better known for its Panasonic and National brands, is expanding its presence in the country with an additional investment of P1.746 billion to manufacture DVD multi-disk drives in its plant at the Carmelray Industrial Park in Laguna.

The DVD multi-disk drive production is reportedly the first of its kind in the world. DVD multi-disk drives can read, write and erase data on re-writable CDs and DVDs for notebook and desktop computers.

Japan’s Matsushita said that production in the country of the multi-disk drive will commence this month.

Kyushu Matsushita Electric Corp. (KMEC) is the electronic giant’s computer manufacturing arm in the Philippines. KMEC has invested P350 million to put up its plant at the Calmelray special economic zone.

It initially produced slim CD-R/RW drives and slim DVD combination drives.

However, for its DVD multi-disk drive production, KMEC will lease a 1,786-square meter factory from JTCI Development (Philippines) Corp. which would be separate from its existing plant.

KMEC is spending P847.5 million (of which P547.5 million represents advances from its Japan-based parent) for the purchase of additional equipment.

KMEC will raise the initial working capital, of which P300 million will come from internally generated funds, in its first year of operation. It will spend another P899 million over the next four years to bring production of DVD multi-disk drives to full capacity.

Based on a Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) data, KMEC expects to produce an average of 1.38 million DVD multi-disk drives annually over the next five years for an average export turnover of P4.693 billion a year.