Samsung Sets Up Second Facility, To Invest $100mn

Chennai: Samsung is transferring a major portion of its colour television assembly line from Noida to Chennai with the inauguration of its second manufacturing facility in India at the ELCOT Industrial Park in Sriperumbudur on Nov 13. The Korean consumer electronics major has infused $30 million in the first phase of the facility, where it is starting operations with 350 employees on its rolls. The next two phases of the facility, which has a production capacity of 1.5 million units per annum, will be completed by 2011, at an additional outlay of $70 million. The Chennai facility will manufacture flat and ultra slim television sets in the 21-29 inch range and LCD TVs in the 19-32 inch range for the domestic and export markets.

Samsung''s India revenues are poised to reach $1.3 billion in 2007-08. Colour TV exports will commence from Sriperumbudur in the first half of next year. The Chennai plant will have an annual production capacity of 1.5 million ultra slim (flat) colour TV sets, with an additional 0.3 million LCD TVs. South India had emerged as a major colour TV market for the company in the January-October period of this year when its share of the market touched 35.7 per cent. While Samsung has been transporting its colour TV sets to the southern markets from Noida, the Chennai facility is expected to bring in huge logistics savings for the company.