The Hindu Business Line : Samtel Color to double capacity

SAMTEL Color Ltd, the country's largest manufacturer of colour picture tubes, is in the process of doubling its capacity from the present six million colour picture tubes (CPTs) to over 10 million by March 2006.

"The company is putting up a new line at Kota, Rajasthan to manufacture 21-inch super flat tubes," Mr Satish Kaura, Chairman and Managing Director, said.

The line is being put up at a cost of Rs 160 crore and would have a capacity to produce 2.5 million tubes per annum.

Further, in order to tap the fast growing market for high-end televisions, Samtel had recently put in place a 29-inch super flat tubes line near Delhi.

This line is currently undergoing trial runs before the launch of commercial production shortly, making Samtel the first tube manufacturer to produce these tubes domestically.

"Till now, television manufacturers had to resort to imports of these tubes. The market for 29-inch televisions is showing strong growth with the reduction in the price for these sets," Mr Kaura said.

The 29-inch television category is estimated at about 0.7 million units this year and is growing rapidly.

Both the new lines are expected to generate additional revenue to the tune of about Rs 700 crore per annum for Samtel and would help the company to meet domestic and overseas demand.

"The flat television category has been seeing very good growth. For instance, in the medium segment, while only about 21 per cent of total CTVs sold two years ago were flat, currently it is about 60 per cent.

"This segment (medium size flat CTVs) is further expected to grow at upwards of 15 per cent next year," he said.

Samtel Color is the flagship company of the Rs 1,450-crore Samtel group.

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