TV’s to get costlier in India from next month

The cost of LED TVs are going to increase further from April This is due to rise in  the cost of open-cell panels which  has gone up in the global markets by about 35 per cent in the past one month. Majot players including Panasonic, Haier,Thomson are considering increasing the prices from April this year. Brands like LG have already increased prices due to the increase in prices of open-cell.

Panasonic India and South Asia President and CEO Manish Sharma remarked, “Panel prices are rising continuously and so are the prices of TVs. It is likely that TV prices may increase further by April. Seeing current trends, it might go up 5-7 per cent more by April.” Haier Appliances India President Eric Braganza also said that there is no other way than to increase the price further.”The prices of open-cell have gone up tremendously and the trends are that it would keep on increasing,” stated Braganza.

The open-cell panel is an integral component in TV manufacturing and almost pertains to around 60 per cent of the unit.Television companies import television panels in the form of open-cell state.They,then do further assembling which results in value addition. Then it gets shipped to market.

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There is a lack of availability of open cell in the market and the prices have almost multiplied manifolds in the past eight months.”From the past eight months, there has been a month-on-month increase in panel prices, we have witnessed more than 350 per cent spike in LED TV panels. Globally, panel market has slowed down. Despite that, there has been an increase of 35 per cent in the past 30 days,” said SPPL Chief Executive Officer Avneet Singh Marwah.The per-unit cost of TVs would go up by at least Rs 2,000-3,000 starting from next month.Videotex International, which owns Daiwa and Shinco brands, said the industry has never imagined such a price increase of open-cell.The32 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.The most popular South Korean brand LG has said that it will not increase the prices of its TV panels.