Samsung had announced in early 2020 that it plans to set up a smartphone display manufacturing facility in India. However, due to the COVID-19 situation, the plans had to be postponed and the company had to send an additional workforce from South Korea to speed up the pending work. Thankfully, the company has now started the production of mobile phone display panels at its Noida factory.
ET Telecom is now reporting that Samsung Display started the production of smartphone display panels at its Noida factory in India earlier this month. The company is planning to ramp up the production and eventually start making display panels for monitors and other IT products as well. The display plant will offer employment to more than 500 people directly and 1,300 jobs indirectly. Currently, Samsung makes 70% of the total display panels it needs in South Korea.
Samsung Display has invested INR 4,825 crores (around $653 million) to shift the manufacturing of mobile displays and smartphones from China to India. It will receive financial incentives worth INR 460 crores (around $61 million) from the government. Analysts say Samsung’s move will nudge other companies to set up operations in the country and offer a boost to India’s plans of becoming the next big electronics manufacturing hub after China.
Samsung is the only company that has met the Indian government’s PLI scheme targets of making mobile phones with an invoice value of INR 15,000 (around $200). Other companies, including Apple, Foxconn, and Wistron, have struggled to meet the targets and asked the government to the financial year 2021-2022 as the first year of production targets.
