Mega LCD display panel manufacturing plant in India by Sterlite

Date: 02/07/2015
LCD display panel is major component in Television/monitors, notebooks and a small screen size tablets and smart phones. The Indian total market opportunity for Flat/LCD display panels can be estimated in the range of 20-30 billion US$ (including LCD panel value inside all the imported electronics devices). Despite the big market opportunity, there is no LCD panel manufacturer in India who can supply LCD panels to TVs and smart phones. The reason is not only investment but the complex manufacturing technology, where the precision of manufacturing is equivalent to semiconductor IC manufacturing.

Government of India is pushing hard to attract investment in this area with most of the sops offered to semiconductor manufacturing extended to LCD panels too. As part of Digital India movement, a leading fiber-optic manufacturer Sterlite announces investment of 40,000 crore Rupees (close to 6.3 Billion US$) in establishing a LCD display panel manufacturing plant in India. It’s a laudable daring decision.

To get an idea on how big is Indian LCD display panel market, lets look at some of the latest market figures on the Indian TV, computers and mobile devices market, which consumes maximum number of display panels. India buys approx 40-50 million TVs a year. India's PC market is 10 million units a year. And finally the most important smart-mobile device market can be estimated around 250 to 300 million device sales now in 2015. Digital India movement can bring easily double digit growth if the rural India start embracing IT. Here 'Make in India' is essential, if not for every product but for component such as LCD panels.

In Indian TV, and smart phone market, South Korean companies Samsung and LG have a leading share. There's no any official announcement by these two companies of any plans to manufacture LCD panels or such key components in India. If these multinational companies are only interested to tap the Indian market but least interested in building mega factories of electronic components manufacturing locally. This clearly calls for the full support to India based company such as Sterlite in setting up precision electronic component manufacturing units in India. That's already happening.

Optical fiber, power conductors and cables manufacturer Sterlite is a large-scale Indian company and has significant share in the fibre-optic market. When India is getting connected with high-speed network using fiber-optic cable, Sterlite has a huge opportunity to grow further in this market. And its investment in the LCD panel manufacturing can take the growth of Sterlite further due to the huge demand coming up for LCD display panels in India, if Digital India takes off in a big way.

Author: Srinivasa Reddy N
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