TCL To Start Handset, TV Display Panel Manufacturing In India From Q4, To hire 1,000
Anubhuti Pradhan, INN/Madhya Pradesh
Twitter-@anubhutipradhan @Infodeaofficial
It will be the second-largest unit of the handset array assembly in India after Samsung. The rivals Holitech, LCE and TXD currently have quite scarce output. The 280,000-square-meter facility in Tirupati is TCL’s most extensive investment outside its base market so far.
With a delay of more than 18 months, the TCL Group is set to start the production of mobile phone and television display panels. The production will start at its Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, factory and is seeming to hire about 1000 employees.
“We had announced an investment of 1.53 billion yuan (approximately US$ 219 million), in September 2019 to start manufacturing display modules in India,” Mike Chen, General Manager, TCL India said. “We are glad to announce that TCL group company CSOT (China Star Optoelectronics Technology) will manufacture 8 million 32″ to 75″ TV panels and 30 million 3.5″ to 8″ mobile phone panels annually. Out of 11 production lines, 5 will be allocated to TV panels and 6 to displays for mobile phones,” he adds further.
India has shifted as the world’s third-largest television market and the second mobile phone market. Samsung, Xiaomi and other smartphone and TV manufacturers are customers of TCL with their factories in India.
The development of panel module vendors like CSOT in India will assist smartphone brands to lower costs as the government had lately levied 10% basic customs duty on display assembly in October last year.
About the increase in prices of televisions, Chen said that the company has so far hiked prices by 5-6% and warned that most TV brands may hike prices in the festive season as demand in large markets like North America keeps expanding. TCL is the fifth-largest television brand worldwide with a business share of 5.6% and the world’s second-largest TV producer.
