LED TV prices will increase from April, open-cell panels costlier in global market
The burden on consumers facing inflation will increase further from April. Most LED TV producing companies have said to increase prices from 1 April. The prices of open-cell panels, which play the biggest role in making LED TVs, have gone up by 35% in the last one month. To compensate for this, TV prices can also be increased by 5-7 percent.
Panasonic India President and CEO Manish Sharma said that the prices of the panel are constantly increasing, which will also affect the prices of TV. In view of the current circumstances, the prices of LED TVs may increase by 5-7 percent from April. Eric Braganza, president of Haier Appliances India, said, “We have no choice but to raise prices.” Open-cell prices are increasing continuously and the trend is visible, it will continue to increase further. If this happens, we will also have to raise the prices of LED TVs again. In the manufacturing of LED TVs, 60 percent of the share is only open-cell.
Super Plastronics, which has given the brand license to French company Thomson and American company Kodak, says that in the last eight months, the price of open-cell panels has increased more than three and a half times. Many companies, including LG, have already made their LED TVs expensive. Company CEO Avneet Singh Marwah said, from April, the price will increase by 2-3 thousand rupees per unit. Arjuun Bajaj, group director of Videotex, a company selling TV from the Diva and Shinko brands, said the price of 32-inch TV would increase by Rs 5-6 thousand from April.
Chinese companies are doing ‘sports’ in the market
Marwah said that China is dominant in the open-cell market and all manufacturers are in China only. With no other option, China’s LED TV companies are playing a game in the market. They get open-cell easily and at a low price, due to which the market of these companies continues to grow. The government has also imposed a 5 percent import duty on open cell from October 2020 onwards after one year, which further increased the burden on domestic manufacturers. TV production should also be brought under the purview of the PLI scheme.
