Vedanta, 20 Korean companies tie up for electronics

The Anil Agarwal-led group signed agreements with these companies at the recent Korea Biz-Trade Show 2023 event, organized by the South Korean government’s trade promotion arm.

“More than 50 companies have shown their interest in partnering with us and we are pleased to announce that we have signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with 20 Korean companies engaged in the electronics manufacturing value chain,” said Akarsh Hebbar, global managing director of Vedanta’s semiconductor and display business. Vedanta is setting up a semiconductor plant in Gujarat in a joint venture with Taiwan’s Foxconn.

Hebbar also invited more companies to partner for the electronics hub. He said the hub has the capacity to attract more than 150 companies and can generate more than 100,000 direct and indirect jobs in the future.

Vedanta’s greenfield display fab will be part of the proposed electronics hub, added Hebbar. Last December, Vedanta signed agreements with 30 Japanese firms during a roadshow in Japan, which was attended by delegates from 100 companies.

Vedanta’s display manufacturing business is led by its unit Avanstrate Inc, which makes special glass used in LCD panels and has manufacturing operations in South Korea and Taiwan. The firm is also working on developing wafer glass, ultra-thin glass, and glasses for AR/VR.

India is emerging as a manufacturing destination for electronics. To be sure, India’s revenue share of the semiconductor component market is expected to clock a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19% to $300 billion in 2026 from $119 billion in 2021, according to an August 2022 report by India Electronics & Semiconductor Association (IESA) and Counterpoint Research.

In December 2021, the Indian government approved a ₹76,000 crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to attract global semiconductor and display manufacturers to set up fabs and display manufacturing units in India.

In addition to Vedanta-Foxconn’s plans, International Semiconductor Consortium (ISMC), a joint venture between UAE’s Next Orbit Ventures and Israel’s Tower Semiconductor, are also working to set up a fab in Karnataka.