Samsung has reportedly decided to manufacture most of its TVs for the Indian market locally. This decision has been taken to take advantage of zero import duties on open cell TV panels. Local manufacturing will also reduce supply chain disruptions, something that the South Korean firm faced during the COVID-19 lockdown period over the past few months.
Under the new ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat' initiative, the Indian government has been requesting consumer electronics firms to set up the required supply chain in India and locally manufacture their goods. Samsung, the largest TV brand in India, will now make 85 to 90 percent of all the TVs it sells in the country locally. The company also makes Galaxy phones locally in its biggest smartphone factory in Noida.
Samsung is working with two contract manufacturing firms in India
Samsung has partnered with the Chinese firm Skyworth to manufacture TVs in Hyderabad, India. The company has also extended its partnership with Indian firm Dixon Technologies for making TVs with screen sizes measuring from 43 inches and going up to 58 inches. Until recently, Dixon was making 32-inch and 43-inch TVs for Samsung, but the task has now been handed over to Skyworth.
After the Indian government started imposing import duty on open cell TV panels in 2018, Samsung had stopped making TVs in India. However, the import duty was removed last year, after which the South Korean firm started assembling TVs in India once again. Open cell TV panels make up for 70 percent of the TV's price.
Other TV brands like LG, Panasonic, Sony, and Xiaomi have been making their TVs in India. OnePlus, on the other hand, which uses Samsung's QLED panels in its TVs, has been importing TVs from China. However, it will now start assembling TVs locally through its contract manufacturing partner Skyworth.
The TV market has reportedly bounced back after the COVID-19 lockdown period ended, and most brands have been seeing 35-50% more sales compared to the same period last year. Panasonic, Sony, and Samsung have claimed that they are experiencing 1.5x to 2x more TV sales of their large-sized TVs.
