The government has received interest from top global and Indian players to set up a fabless display manufacturing plant in India and is likely to bring an incentive scheme for attracting 3-4 large such investments within the next six months, a top official said. “Both international and major Indian entities have come forward to expressing interest of various kind and we are hopeful that we would be able to take this process forward,” Ajay Prakash Sawhney, secretary-ministry of electronics & information technology (MeitY), said in a virtual industry summit on Thursday.
“Based on what we get from the expressions of interest that we have received and the extensive discussions that we have had with all the major players in this space over the past three months…we will attempt to come out with a scheme or incentive structure based on which we will then invite proposals to set up such manufacturing within India..within the next six months,” Sawhney said.
The secretary added that India has room for over 3-4 large investments in the display fab manufacturing area. He was speaking at the launch of a joint report written by apex industry body India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA) and Grantwood Research on the subject ‘Creation of a Display Industry in India’.
According to the report, the industry is estimating government’s support to the tune of $20 billion in the form of financial incentives to display makers and display supply chain companies who agree to make substantial investments under the private-public partnerships. India should focus on two types of display fabs, namely, Gen 6 fabs for smartphone displays, and Gen 8.5 fabs for all other product categories.
G. Rajeswaran, Director & CEO, Grantwood Technologies said, “A typical LCD or OLED display fab for flat panel display with a capacity of 100,000 mother glass per month would require an investment of somewhere between $1.5-2 billion while a Gen-6 fab would need around $3-4 billion.” Localising display manufacturing would create value-addition in India of greater than $11 billion annually from the fifth year, create export opportunities of up to $10 billion and create employment to the tune of 200,000 new jobs, ICEA said.
A display fab investment is usually made with an eight-year plan, and the factory must achieve breakeven stage in the third year and start generating cash in the fourth year. Experts said, because display technologies evolve within 7-8 years, companies investing in India will need strong R&D activity to support the evolving manufacturing processes. There are a total 39 mass producing display fabs in the world, of which 24 are located in China, which will add 13 more in the next five years
The overall demand for displays in India for 2020 was about 253 million units valued at $5.4 billion. “Given the manufacturing plans for Mobile Phones, TV and IT hardware products, it is expected to grow at a healthy CAGR of 29.5% to 922 million units or $18.9 billion by 2025,” ICEA said.
Source : Times of India