Samsung arm mulls setting up battery-making plant in India
8 Nov 2014 11:45 PM GMT
Samsung SDI, the chemical and battery unit of Korean technology major Samsung, is studying the feasibility of setting up a manufacturing plant in India.
Samsung SDI CEO Sang Jin Park and Senior Vice President Jeong-Wook Kim met Telecom and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad as a follow up of their meeting held about 20 days back in South Korea. ‘Samsung SDI CEO Park met me today. For me it is a matter of great satisfaction that hardly within a fortnight of my visit to South Korea they have come to India for assessing their business potential and expansion,’ Prasad said after the meeting.
When asked if company is interested in manufacturing of rechargeable batteries in India, Prasad said, ‘I have impressed upon them to make in India as well as export from India. Now India is one of their biggest markets for mobile phones in the world.’
Department of Electronics and Information Technology Joint Secretary Ajay Kumar said, ‘They are studying feasibility of production in India before they come up with a decision. They are positively looking at India.’ The minister said that companies are now preferring India over China due to change in work culture under the new government, inexpensive and skilled workers. Samsung SDI claims to have the largest share in rechargeable battery market in Asia. In India companies assemble and package Lithium-based battery that are used in mobile phones, automobiles, railways, consumer durables etc.
An industry representative said batteries are not covered under Information Technology Agreement 1 which allows duty free import of IT and Telecom products. Further, government in the budget has imposed new tax on product not covered under this pact which makes battery making business in India beneficial then importing it, the representative said.
Indian Cellular Association National President Pankaj Mahendroo said, ‘We are setting up a forum to encourage business of Lithium based battery in India. It will have representation from mobile phone companies, automobile, railways etc. In coming days there will be huge demand for Lithium-based batteries due to new technologies like Internet of things and machine-to-machine communications.’
Samsung SDI CEO Sang Jin Park and Senior Vice President Jeong-Wook Kim met Telecom and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad as a follow up of their meeting held about 20 days back in South Korea. ‘Samsung SDI CEO Park met me today. For me it is a matter of great satisfaction that hardly within a fortnight of my visit to South Korea they have come to India for assessing their business potential and expansion,’ Prasad said after the meeting.
When asked if company is interested in manufacturing of rechargeable batteries in India, Prasad said, ‘I have impressed upon them to make in India as well as export from India. Now India is one of their biggest markets for mobile phones in the world.’
Department of Electronics and Information Technology Joint Secretary Ajay Kumar said, ‘They are studying feasibility of production in India before they come up with a decision. They are positively looking at India.’ The minister said that companies are now preferring India over China due to change in work culture under the new government, inexpensive and skilled workers. Samsung SDI claims to have the largest share in rechargeable battery market in Asia. In India companies assemble and package Lithium-based battery that are used in mobile phones, automobiles, railways, consumer durables etc.
An industry representative said batteries are not covered under Information Technology Agreement 1 which allows duty free import of IT and Telecom products. Further, government in the budget has imposed new tax on product not covered under this pact which makes battery making business in India beneficial then importing it, the representative said.
Indian Cellular Association National President Pankaj Mahendroo said, ‘We are setting up a forum to encourage business of Lithium based battery in India. It will have representation from mobile phone companies, automobile, railways etc. In coming days there will be huge demand for Lithium-based batteries due to new technologies like Internet of things and machine-to-machine communications.’
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