Sharp to Sell Microwaves Made in U.S. to Europe

Sharp Corp., saying it is cheaper to make some products in the United States than in Japan, announced Wednesday that it will begin exporting American-made microwave ovens to 11 European countries.

The Japanese consumer products company said its U.S. subsidiary, Sharp Electronics, will ship about 60,000 ovens to Europe during the next few months. By the end of next year, the unit is expected to have shipped to Europe 100,000 ovens worth about $12 million. Each oven is 0.6 cubic feet in size.

Sharp said it believed that this will be the largest export by a Japanese company of consumer electronics made by an American affiliate.

Other Japanese companies have already begun exporting products made at their U.S. plants. Honda Motor Co. began shipping Accord coupes made in Marysville, Ohio, to Japan in March. And Toyota Motor Co., the world’s third-largest auto maker, last week shipped its U.S.-made Corolla FX model to Taiwan.

Bruce Miller, deputy assistant secretary at the Commerce Department, called Sharp’s announcement a “step in the right direction” toward reducing the U.S. trade deficit.

Although Sharp is a Japanese company, Miller said it had created jobs for American workers, was using American-made components in its products and was helping to increase exports from America.

Sharp’s U.S. unit is based in Mahwah, N.J. Its plant is in Memphis, Tenn., and has 1,000 employees.

In 1979, Sharp’s first year of U.S. production, the Memphis plant made 77,000 color televisions and 18,000 microwaves. This year it expects to produce more than 1 million TVs and 800,000 microwaves.

The steep decline in the value of the dollar has made it more economical to export American-made products rather than Japanese-made products to Europe, company officials said.

“Our plan to export products made by our U.S. facility is a very broad and long-range one,” said Toshikazu Mitsudi, chairman of Sharp Electronics.

But he conceded that a significant appreciation in the dollar could force the company to reevaluate plans to expand U.S. exports beyond microwaves.

Sharp said it was studying the possibility of exporting other American-made products to Europe and Asia as well.