Vedanta to invest Rs 40,000 cr in two LCD panel units

After announcing merger of its oil and gas company Cairn India with Vedanta Ltd last month, the Anil Agarwal-led group now plans to float a new entity for putting up its Rs 40,000-crore LCD (liquid crystal display) panel fabrication (fab) facility in India.

Two lines of fabrication units would be set up with a combined 20 million capacity. Anil Agarwal made the announcement at the Digital India event on Wednesday.

Speaking to Business Standard, Anand Agarwal, chief executive officer, Sterlite Technologies, said, "Each of the two lines will have an annual capacity of 10 million television sets."

Sterlite Technologies is the technology arm of the London-based Vedanta group, a globally diversified natural resources conglomerate with wide ranging interests in aluminium, copper, zinc, lead, silver, iron ore, etc. Anand Agarwal said the investment would be made over the next few years through a separate company.

The LCD and LED (light emitting diodes) televisions are a growing market in India.

According to the Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association, some 10 million such televisions were sold in 2014. The number is expected to reach 12 million this year. Total number of television sets sold during 2014 is 13.5 million, including 3.5 million CRT (cathode ray tube) TV sets.

According to a EY-Ficci report on the consumer durables industry, penetration of TVs in India is 60 per cent, highest compared to any other home appliances products, compared 89 per cent worldwide.

Anil Agarwal said the LCD panel market is currently import-dependent and local manufacturing would reduce this dependence. LCD or LED panel and the chips for TV are predominantly imported from Thailand and only last-mile assembly is done in India.

There has been a significant uptick in local manufacturing of flat panel display (FPD) TVs due to reduction on custom duties on components and primarily last-mile assembly in the TV manufacturing industry. There was a marginal decline in TV imports, since the government reduced custom duties on components to zero and stopped duty-free imports of flat-panel television sets.