Panasonic Corp will build a plant in Thailand and one in Malaysia to handle such intermediate processes as adding parts to flat panels, in a bid to reduce television production costs by as much as 20%.

Currently, these middle processes take place at facilities next to TV assembly plants in Japan, Europe and elsewhere. Labor and materials costs will be much lower in Thailand and Malaysia.

The Thai plant is expected to come onstream as early as January. Panasonic will ship plasma panels produced in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, to this plant, which is capable of attaching electrical circuits and other parts to 1 million panels a year. The products will then go to an assembly plant in the Czech Republic.

Personnel costs in Thailand are only one-fifth those in the Eastern European country, and the cost for aluminium components will be cut in half.