Today it has been reported that Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. is in talks with Haier Group to sell its flagship refrigerator plant in Thailand and procure the products from the appliance maker in China on an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) basis.
Details such as the expected sale price of the plant, which makes about 1 million refrigerators a year are not yet avaiable.
In OEM agreements, suppliers manufacture products under the names of resellers which in effect means that we could see Haier products being sold with the Sanyo name on them.
The source said Sanyo, which has been struggling recently, could transfer its entire refrigerator production to Haier, to improve profitability at its white goods production.
The division posted an operating loss of about 20 billion yen ($168 million) in the year that ended on March 31.
Shares in Sanyo were up 0.9 percent, outperforming the Tokyo stock market’s electrical machinery index.