Battery manufacturer Sony is to close its Shimotsuke lithium-ion facility this September.
Sony is trying to improve the company’s efficiency in order to compete with foreign rivals, sources told the The Japan Times.
Sony plans to transfer 40 engineers from the Shimotsuke plant to its Koriyama plant in the Fukushima prefecture.
After closing the Shimotsuke site, the Japanese company will have three domestic lithium-ion battery plants left. The business headquarters in Koriyama, an electrode production plant in Motomiya and a plant in Kanuma.
Sony outlined its plans to phase out the production at the Shimotsuke plant in 2012. The site was focusing on design and development as well as assembling lithium-ion batteries. The initial plan was to transform it into a research base.