Samsung wants to manufacture popular models such as 24, 32 and 42 inches through contract manufacturing route and continue sourcing rest of the portfolio from Vietnam.
Under intense pressure from the government to restart television manufacturing in India, Samsung Electronics has initiated talks with two of the country’s leading contract manufacturers, Foxconn and Dixon Technologies, to start production of TV models up to 42-inches that account for over half of the Indian market.
In an interaction with Economic Times, two senior industry executives said Samsung does not want to invest again in a plant for televisions in India due to shrinking margins in television business amidst intense price competition.
Current scenario
The government has told Samsung it wants a commitment to start local sourcing of TV in India before it brings down duty on open cell TV panel to zero from 5 per cent that led the Korean giant shut down the TV production line in its Chennai plant. Since October, Samsung has been importing TVs from Vietnam at zero levies under free trade agreement (FTA) route.
Samsung wants to manufacture popular models such as 24, 32 and 42 inches through contract manufacturing route and continue sourcing rest of the portfolio from Vietnam, the executives said to the English Daily.
Another executive informed that the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) has been in touch with Samsung to ensure the company restarts local production of television since this has been a blotch on the flagship ‘Make in India’ initiative.
The executives further informed that the government is ready to scrap the duty on open cell panels provided it receives an in-principle decision that Samsung will start local production. Samsung India’s manufacturing team recently reached out to Foxconn and Dixon with their proposal said.
Incidentally, Dixon already contract manufactures semi-automatic washing machines for the Korean firm.
