Sanyo to Build Solar-Power Battery Factory, Double Production

By Junko Hayashi

Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Sanyo Electric Co., Japan’s second- largest solar-battery maker, will build a factory in Osaka, western Japan, as part of plans to double output of the devices.

Sanyo, also the world’s largest maker of rechargeable batteries, plans to start operations by the end of 2010 at the plant, to be built alongside an existing facility in Kaizuka city, Kumiko Makino, a Tokyo-based spokeswoman at Sanyo said today by telephone.

The company plans to double production of solar batteries to 680,000 kilowatts by the end of March 2011, by raising output at other existing plants in Gifu and Shimane prefectures, Makino said.

Sanyo will spend more than 10 billion yen ($109 million) to build the plant, the Nikkei newspaper reported today, without saying where it got the information. Sanyo’s Makino declined to disclose the investment.

The shares added 0.7 percent to 139 yen as of the 11 a.m. trading break in Tokyo, compared with a 0.2 percent advance by the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average.

To contact the reporter on this story: Junko Hayashi in Tokyo at juhayashi@bloomberg.net; Hiroshi Suzuki in Tokyo at Hsuzuki5@bloomberg.net.