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The $7.5-billion China-headquartered Changhong Group is planning to set up a manufacturing base for set-top boxes in India by the second half of the current fiscal, a top company official has indicated.
And this is in line with the Mianyang-based company's strategy of selling three million set-top boxes in the Indian market this year.
“A massive market like India calls for a lot of customisation and hence, everything cannot be shipped out of China. We may look at a manufacturing base either in Mumbai or Delhi,” Mr Lin Maoxiang, Vice-Chairman of Changhong, told Business Line .
As a first step, the company is looking at joining hands with local players for contract manufacturing.
India would soon require 100 million set-top boxes thanks to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which has suggested June 2014 as the deadline for all cable operators to move to digital television signals.
“If the business grows like what we have seen in Europe, we will further participate in the operations by increasing financial and technological investments,” said Mr Maoxiang.
Globally, Changhong has manufacturing plants in Russia, Indonesia, the US and North Africa.
Subsidiary company Sichuan Changhong Network Technologies, which offers set-top boxes and other digital television broadcasting applications, has been exporting set-top boxes to India since 2008. However, it is only now that the company has set up a branch office here in Mumbai.
The Changhong group has been operating out of its India office in Delhi for several years now. Established in 1958, the Shanghai Stock Exchange-listed Changhong is said to be one of the largest Chinese consumer electronics provider specialising in research and development, manufacturing and marketing of products such as televisions, air-conditioners, refrigerators, and so on.
Now the group's endeavour is to establish a fully owned arm for its set-top business in India. Analysts say this would help the company structure ‘innovative pricing models' with customers and further penetrate the market here.
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