Innolux Corp (群創) is to start assembling LCD TVs in India for Sharp Corp by the end of this year, taking advantage of tax incentives under the “Make in India” policy, an Innolux executive said on Wednesday.
Innolux returned to TV assembly last year to expand its revenue base and reduce risk in the volatile LCD business, with Sharp becoming its first client.
“Sharp TVs will be made in India [when we start production there]. Now we ship TV sets from other [manufacturing] sites,” Innolux president Robert Shiao (蕭志弘) told the Taipei Times on the sidelines of the annual Touch Taiwan Display International Exhibition.
Innolux would assemble Sharp TVs at a factory owned by the consumer electronics brand in a central Indian state, said Shiao, who also heads Innolux’s TV assembly business.
Sharp and Innolux are both subsidiaries of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密).
Shiao declined to disclose details about their cooperation.
Miaoli-based Innolux has TV production lines in Tainan and in Foshan in China’s Guangdong Province. The company has for years been mulling building flat-panel plants in India to tap into the fast-growing domestic market along with its parent company.
Innolux is still evaluating the possibilities, given the complexity of Indian culture and the country’s investment environment.
“We have a lot of new ideas about India,” chairman Jim Hung (洪進揚) said on Wednesday.
Innolux plans to ship about 2 million to 3 million TVs this year, and the number is to double to between 5 million and 6 million next year, as it has secured major orders from three clients, Shiao said.
Asked whether North American TV vendor Vizio Inc might be one of Innolux’s three TV clients, as some have speculated after Innolux acquired a 4 percent stake in Vizio for US$45 million in June, Shiao neither confirmed nor denied the speculation.
Innolux supplies half of its TV panels to Sharp and cooperates with Sharp to develop advanced OLED technologies for smartwatches and other smart devices.
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