TOKYO (Wall Street Journal) -- Sharp Corp. will shut down liquid-crystal-panel manufacturing lines at two of its plants in Japan and shed 380 temporary workers amid slumping global demand.

The Osaka, Japan, consumer-electronics maker, known for its Aquos brand of LCD television sets, said it will shut down aged lines at its Tenri and Mie No. 1 factories -- both located in central Japan.
Since the 1990s, these lines have produced LCD panels for small and midsize TV sets. The company declined to comment on details, such as output capacity of the lines to be shut down.
The company will shift some of the production from its Tenri and Mie No. 1 plants, as well as from two factories in Mie, to the more advanced Kameyama No. 1 plant in central Japan. It will begin the planned reorganization in January.
The number of temporary workers to be cut represents 29% of the 1,300 temporary workers at Sharp’s production bases in Japan, including LCD panel and other plants, as of the end of November.
Sharp is latest manufacturer in the electronics sector to implement structural revisions as the recession in Japan begins to make itself felt.
The company, which had been considering reorganizing its domestic LCD panel production setup, said that oversupply in the flat-panel market makes it the perfect time to move.
In October, Sharp issued a profit warning for the current fiscal year ending March, blaming a slump in sales of mobile-phone handsets in Japan and weakness in LCD panel prices.
Despite the reorganization, Sharp has kept intact its plan to sell 11 million LCD TVs world-wide this fiscal year.