BEIJING, March 16 (Xinhuanet) -- China is expected to produce 91 million units of color TVs in 2006, the Ministry of Information Industry forecast on Thursday.

Some 48 million units will be for export, a source with the ministry's Economic Performance Department said.

The output of thin film transistor-liquid crystal display panel TVs has grown very fast over the past years, said the source, adding that China's flat screen TV technology has gradually matured, leading to reduced production cost.

The sales ratio of flat screen color TV has outpaced that of traditional color TV, according to a color TV sales database which covers 200 cities.

China is the world's biggest color TV producer and exporter, with its color TV output making up half of the world's total.

In 2005, the country turned out 82.83 million sets of color TVs,an increase of 13 percent year-on-year. It sold 80.45 million sets,a rise of 10.69 percent from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, it exported 39.75 million units of color TVs last year, a year-on-year rise of 43.36 percent, with export volume hitting 5.05 billion U.S. dollars, up 57.55 percent.

Although the growth of the industry began to slow down in 2003, it has maintained double-digit growth.