| With the Centre issuing the guidelines of the new semiconductor policy, companies are firming up their investment plans in India to set up plants. |
| Companies planning fab plants (factories to produce raw silicon wafers with chips) for the electronics industry and solar photovoltaics (for solar energy generation) projects can now formally apply for concessions under the policy. |
| Moser Baer, which announced a Rs 2,000-crore solar photovoltaic plant in Chennai yesterday, has already applied for the concessions. |
| The Centre or its agencies will provide 20 per cent of the capital expenditure as incentive during the first 10 years of operations of such plants in SEZs, and 25 per cent of the capital expenditure for non-SEZ units. Non-SEZ units would also be exempted from the countervailing duty (CVD). |
| SemIndia (promoted by a group of NRIs), which is planning a $3 billion semiconductor facility at Fab City near Hyderabad, hailed the announcement. “We have gone through the guidelines. We are preparing the details of the project as per the requirements made out in the guidelines. We are going ahead with the investments,” SemIndia Systems Managing Director B V Naidu told Business Standard. |
| According to him, the new policy will attract more investments. “Companies were waiting for the detailed guidelines. We can expect more announcements of investments from many players,” he added. |
| California-based Signet Solar, which is planning a $2 billion investment to produce solar photovoltaic modules in India, has termed the development as positive. |
| “We will build three solar photovoltaic manufacturing facilities in India over the next decade. Each manufacturing facility will have an annual output of about 300-mw photovoltaic module. Signet Solar has commenced construction of its first global manufacturing facility in Germany and will leverage that experience to ramp up to large-scale manufacturing in India. The construction of the first manufacturing plant in India will begin by early 2008,” said Signet Solar CEO and founder Rajeeva Lahri. |
| He pointed out that India held the potential to successfully develop and support the entire ecosystem of nano-manufacturing, including solar module manufacturing. “The policy will make India a globally competitive country and encourage companies such as us to come to India. Also, the support we get from various state governments adds to our conviction that India is ideal for manufacturing the world’s lowest-cost solar modules,” Lahri added |
Archive for October, 2007
Companies warm up to fab guidelines
SemIndia to export hardware to China
So you thought India was for software and China was for hardware in making smart electronic devices?
SemIndia, a non-resident Indian-led consortium that aims to eventually make semiconductors in India has received queries for exports of telecom-related electronic products it is now designing and manufacturing in the country.
“We are not only competing against China, but we are going to reverse the trend,” SemIndia’s chairman Vinod Agarwal told reporters. “China Telecom has asked us for some products made in India.”
The consortium now has state-owned BSNL as a leading customer and has shipped 5 lakh modems for Internet connections and expects to ship 2.5 lakh units a month in the next 18 months. Revenues are expected to rise from Rs 100 crore in the current fiscal to Rs 600 crore in 2009/10.
Agarwal said China Telecom had asked for products from SemIndia, but not the modems it is shipping now. The consortium uses high-technology design done in Bangalore to ensure quality at competitive price points.
The modems were made by global contract manufacturer Flextronics at its Chennai facility. Flextronics is a key investor in the consortium, which is busy building a $30 million facility in Hyderabad to test, assemble and process microchips in Hyderabad as part of a planned “Fab City.”
However, SemIndia’s long-term ambitions are stuck over government incentives, with the government agreeing to take part in equity investment only after other investors chip in.
SemIndia hopes to cash in on a big domestic boom in micro-chip enabled products in products like modems, set-top boxes and Wi-Max equipment that drives high-speed Internet.
SemIndia to apply for govt incentives within month
SemIndia, a consortium of non-resident Indian entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, today said it will apply for government incentives within a month to set up a chip-making facility in Hyderabad.
“The company plans to invest USD $3 billion over the next five years at Fab City (an SEZ) near Hyderabad. We are in the process of applying for incentives and the company will approach government with in a month,” SemIndia, Chairman and CEO, Vinod Agarwal said.
As per the package, the Government would provide an incentive of 20 per cent of the capital expenditure during the first ten years for units in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ). However, in the non-SEZ units, the incentives would be 25 per cent of the capital expenditure.
A third of the investment would be in the form of equity and the rest would be raised as debt, Vinod Agarwal said, but he declined to name equity partners for the venture.
The company is also building a testing facility and assembly for chips in the Hyderabad SEZ– Fab city, which it expects to complete in the middle of next year.
Asked about the new facility, he said, “the manufacturing facility will be completed in the middle of next year and will start operations by the end of 2008. The facility is coming on the area of about 300, 000 sq ft.
As per the figures of India Semiconductor Association and consultancy firm Frost & Sullivan, sales of electronics in India are projected to touch USD $340 billion by 2015.
Embedded keen to start Hyd operations
| Canada-based Embedded Solutions has approached the Andhra Pradesh government for 50-70 acres of land at the upcoming Fab City for setting up a facility to outsource some of its operations to India, according to government sources. |
| Though the company has a collaboration with Xilinx, a US-based company with its Indian subsidiary’s R&D centre located in Hyderabad, the move is seen as Embedded’s further expansion of its outsourcing plans. |
| Embedded specialises in the development of embedded electronics using micro processors and programmable logic devices, while the Xilinx’s India centre focused on developing IP cores before expanding into software, systems and applications development. |
| Another US-based company, Tessolve, is also in touch with the government to set up an assembly and testing plant in the Fab City. It has already announced its plans for Tamil Nadu. |
| Meanwhile, the Indian Semiconductor Association and the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) are holding a meeting with over 30 semiconductor companies here on Friday. |
| “The event is basically to showcase Hyderabad to the semiconductor companies for locating their operations in the Fab City,” BP Acharya, CMD, APIIC, told Business Standard |
Titan Energy to set up solar cell unit in Fab City
The Hyderabad-based solar photovoltaic module manufacturer, Titan Energy Systems, has announced plans to set up a 500 MW facility in the Fab City near Hyderabad with an investment of Rs. 900 crore and ramp up the annual capacity of its existing unit from 50 MW to 150 MW at a cost of Rs. 40 crore.Talking to The Hindu, the company’s Managing Director, Rao S. Y. S. Chodagam, said the allocation of land from the Government for the new unit in Fab City was expected by the year-end and it was planned to start the operations by the first quarter of 2009. He said the finances would be met initially through private equity and later through initial public offering (IPO).
The new unit would manufacture both cell line and wafer line photovoltaic power modules as also thin film.
The expansion of the existing facility was taken up following orders from Europe and the U.S. under long-term contracts in excess of Rs. 1,000 crore. With expansion scheduled to be completed in six months, the turnover was expected to increase to Rs. 650 crore next year from Rs. 160 crore this year. As part of the expansion, the company had tied up with a reputed U.S.-based firm for automation. He said automation for 50 mw would be completed by December and for another 100 mw by June next.
Mr. Rao said the company had been exporting its power modules to the European market for the past eight years and had recently received International Electric Commission certification which was mandatory for sale in Europe and the U.S.