The Vedanta Group plans to invest $15 billion to make displays and other semiconductor chips in India. The investment will be made over a period of 5-10 years through group company Avanstrate Inc., a Tokyo-based glass substrate manufacturer used in LCD panels.
As per Mint report, the managing director of Avanstrate Inc, Akarsh Hebbar told the publication that the investment will be made in a phased manner and will comprise an Integrated Display Fab facility and a separate semiconductor facility. Covering almost the entire manufacturing process of a chip, the integrated fabs have two or three factories that take a ‘sand-to-brand’ approach towards making semiconductors.
Avanstrate will start with assembly, test, marking and packaging (ATMP) and outsourced semiconductor testing (OSAT) units. It will subsequently build full-fledged fabs. As reported by TechCircle, according to Akarsh, the first phase will see the company investing $5-10 billion, leveraging the government’s PLI scheme for semiconductor manufacturing in India, through which the government plans to provide financial support of up to 50% of the project cost to firms.
Starting with Integrated Display Fabs, Avanstrate will build it in four phases while the semiconductor plant will be built in two phases. The first phase will target a capacity of 60,000 panel sheets and 10 million displays. Akarsh said that they should come up with the larger panel fab and the semiconductor fab by 2025-26 while the smaller factories like OSAT may be functional by end of 2024. He also mentioned that this phase I will be followed by phase II that is likely to start about eight to nine years later.
The company is already in talks with various states like Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Maharashtra to provide incentives over and above the central government’s schemes. According to Akarsh, proximity to ports, railways and others will play a key role in considerations for setting up the units. He also mentioned that the initial conversations have been good and he expects substantial packages.
