Chinese consumers can expect to see a significant drop in the price of projection televisions after a firm won a contract to make the key component.

 

Beijing Aihua New Enterprise Lighting Appliance Company Limited and the United States-based eele Laboratories on Thursday signed the agreement on production of multifunction high pressure (MHP) lamps.

 

It is expected to reverse the net import of MHP lamps into China and help reduce the cost of projection TVs for Chinese consumers.

 

The market for projection TVs was promising in China, but it failed to grow as fast as expected, partly due to the high cost of the lamps, said Zhao Handing, secretary general of China Large Screen Projection Screen Equipment Professional Association.

 

Imported lamps were expensive and users paid more for replacements when the lamps expired, Zhao said.

 

The first China-made MHP products would cost about one fifth of the price of imports, Zhao said.

 

Built in 1999, Aihua, a subsidiary of Beijing Illumination (Hong Kong) Limited, is the first on the Chinese mainland to introduce an MHP production line. American eele Laboratories owns14 patents on lamps and its latest products are used in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the next-generation fighter aircraft for the US Air Force.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2006)