Hitachi to Start Selling Flat-Screen TVs in U.S.

Electronics maker Hitachi Ltd. plans to start selling flat-screen televisions in the U.S. later this month ahead of South Korean rivals, Nikkei English News said, citing unnamed company officials.

Tokyo-based Hitachi aims to sell about 10,000 sets with 32-inch and 42-inch flat screens in the U.S. by the end of next spring, the Nikkei said. The screens for U.S.-bound TVs initially will be made by Hitachi in Japan, with production shifted to company plants in Mexico later this year.

Sharp Corp., Japan's largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, plans to more than triple its U.S. sales of such flat-screen TVs to 200,000 in its current fiscal year, the report said. Sharp has begun selling 30-inch TVs in the U.S., in addition to 13- to 20-inch models.