LED TVs to get costly as cost of open-cell panel spikes globally

If you are thinking of getting one of those latest LED TVs, better purchase it before next month because prices will rise further from April. This is because the cost of open-cell panels has gone up in the global markets by up to 35% in the past one month.

The open-cell panel is an important part of TV manufacturing and covers around 60% of the unit. Companies import television panels in an open-cell state, which require further assembling with value addition before being shipped to market for sale.

Brands such as Haier, Panasonic and Thomson are considering a price hike from April this year, while some like LG have already raised prices. Manish Sharma, Panasonic India and South Asia President and CEO, said panel prices are rising continuously and so are the prices of TVs. “It is likely that TV prices may increase further by April.” Sharma said prices may go up 5 to 7% more by April.

Eric Braganza, Haier Appliances India President, said there is no other way than to increase the prices. “The prices of open-cell have gone up tremendously and the trends are that it would keep on increasing and if that continues, we would have to continuously increase prices.”

Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd (SPPL), the brand licensee for French Electronics brand Thomson and US-based brand Kodak, said there is a scarcity of open cell in the market and the prices have almost gone up by three-folds in the past eight months.

Avneet Singh Marwah, SPPL CEO, highlighted that from the past eight months, there has been a month-on-month increase in panel prices. “We have witnessed more than 350% spike in LED TV panels. Globally, panel market has slowed down. Despite that, there has been an increase of 35% in the past 30 days.” Marwah said the open-cell market is dominated by Chinese manufacturers and alleged that TV makers from China are getting better prices from them. “Currently, there is no alternative apart from China where all panel manufacturers are present. It has been closely observed that only Chinese brands are getting better supply and price.”

Videotex International, which owns Daiwa and Shinco brands, said the industry has never seen or expected such a price increase of open cell. Arjun Bajaaj, Videotex International Group Director, said since 32 inch is the most-sold size in India, the price of a 32-inch screen size is expected to go up by Rs 5,000 – 6,000.

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However, LG brand is not opting for a price increase for its TVs. Vijay Babu, LG Electronics India Vice-President (Home Appliances), said the company had already increased the prices by around 7 to 4% in January and 3% in February because of the hike in panel prices.

SPPL CEO said the government should bring TV manufacturing under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, a move which will make the Indian TV industry more competitive on the global stage. The government had restored the import duty on open cell. It had re-imposed 5% customs duty on the import of open-cell for TVs from October 1, 2020 after having nil duty for a year. It had also put imports of TV under a restricted category from free to promote domestic manufacturing. As such, now, importer of TV has to seek a licence from the commerce ministry’s DGFT for the imports.