The 280,000-square-meter facility in Tirupati is TCL’s largest investment outside its home market so far
Electronics firm TCL Group is finally ready to commence operations at its Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh plant, beginning with production of mobile phone and television display panels during the fourth quarter and is looking to hire around 1000 employees, a recent report said.
In a conversation with The Economic Times, TCL India’s General Manager Mike Chen remarked, “We had announced an investment of 1.53 billion yuan (approximately US$219 million), in September 2019 to start manufacturing display modules in India. “
Chen added that the plan was to start phase one operation in the second quarter of 2020, but the project encountered difficulties like shortages of raw materials, workers and equipment due to the pandemic.
“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 said.
This ambitious factory of the Chinese multinational company is second only to rival Samsung’s handset display assembly unit in size. The 280,000-square-meter facility in Tirupati is TCL’s largest investment outside its home market so far.
Commenting on India’s relevance as a global market, Chen said, “India has become the world’s third-largest TV market and the second mobile phone market. Samsung, Xiaomi and other mobile phone and TV manufacturers, many of which are customers of TCL CSOT, all have factories in India. We launched the project in India to shorten the production cycle as well as the transport distance for the raw materials and improve the efficiency of the supply chain.”
TCL is the fifth-largest television brand globally with a market share of 5.6 per cent and the world’s second-largest TV producer. In India, it is the seventh largest selling brand which shipped close to 1.5 million units during the festive season last year it said.
Regarding the increase in prices of TVs, Chen said that the company has so far hiked prices by 5-6 per cent and warned that most TV brands may hike prices in the festive season as demand in large markets like North America keeps expanding.
