Sony has announced its plans to open a new smartphone factory in Pathum Thani Province in Thailand. This will be the first smartphone manufacturing plant in 20 years from the struggling smartphone maker.
Initial investment in the factory is expected to total several billion yen. The factory that will be dedicated to mobile business, will have a start-to-finish production system that’s designed to cover the entire manufacturing process from chip mounting to assembly. Mass production of the phone will start in 2016’s financial year and Sony plans to use the plant to manufacture several million Xperia smartphones per year. Sony will retain full ownership of this new smartphone manufacturing plant unlike its last mobile phone facility which was built in Beijing back in 1995 in partnership with three local companies.
The latest news about a new smartphone factory comes after earlier this month Sony Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai said that next year will be the smartphone division’s “make-or-break year”. Sony’s mobile arm is expected to post a 60 billion yen ($480 million) loss this year. Sony aims to turn the operation around in the year ending March 2017 through payroll cuts, streamlined marketing and other structural reforms.