S.Korean display companies look to expand business in India with Vedanta

South Korean display companies try to make breakthrough in new market by entering Indian market.

The Korea Display Industry Association (KDIA) announced on Thursday that it held a "Korea-India Display Industry Cooperation Seminar and Consultation Meeting" with the Indian Vedanta Group and the Gujarat government for two days.

The event was organized to support the materials, parts and equipment companies in the liquid crystal display (LCD) sector amid the rapid transition of the domestic display industry to organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). 

Fifty companies, including LCD cell manufacturing equipment companies and post-process test companies, participated in the seminar, and 40 companies held one-on-one consultations for export cooperation, and 11 of them signed MOU and NDA for close cooperation in the future.

Recently, the Indian government announced an investment plan worth about $9 billion to establish an ecosystem for semiconductor and display manufacturing, and is looking for countries and companies with related infrastructure.

In particular, it sees the Korean display industry complex as a role model and hopes to cooperate with Korea through overall industrial inspection. 

"The goal is to start construction at the end of this year and mass-produce it from the end of 2026 to create India's first 8th generation LCD fab in Gujarat," said Akarsh Hebbar, global managing director of display and semiconductor business of Vedanta Group.

The Korean display industry is reorganizing its business structure with high value-added OLEDs, but it still needs a new way out to target the LCD market, which accounts for 65% of the total market.

"We will try to reduce excessive industrial dependence on the Chinese display market in the future, while diversifying global suppliers and complementary technology cooperation in new markets such as India," said Lee Dong-wook, vice chairman of KDIA.

Write to Haeyoung Park at bono@hankyung.com