Chinese color television industry's first LCD production line has been formally put into operation at Hisense, one of the major television manufacturers in China.

The production line put into operation this time features an annual capacity of 500,000 liquid crystal modules ranging from 15 inches to 42 inches. Liu Hongxin, general manger of Hisense Electrical, tells local media that this is only the first step of their plan, and the company hopes to set up five such production lines with a total investment of CNY700 million by 2009 and achieve an annual capacity of 3 million TVs.

This move should not only bring a change to China's dependence on foreign LCDs, but also help the Chinese color TV industry to effectively reduce their costs. However, with the operation of this LCD line, the competition in the home appliance industry will also become even fiercer.