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High-tech glass company Corning is optimistic about the growth of its mobile consumer electronics and life sciences businesses in India, a senior company official said on Thursday.
The automotive and fiber optic business is the one that currently brings the most revenue to the company in the country.
Corning, which started out by providing glass covers for the light bulbs invented by Thomas Alva Edison, has expanded into several verticals to provide glass technology ranging from electronic display protective covers for mobile phones and television screens, semiconductor manufacturing and space telescopes to glass containers for laboratories, vaccines, etc.
“We were waiting for an ecosystem to be established in India, where we now see global players already establishing their presence to manufacture smartphones, and we just want to be a part of the supply chain. India is now becoming a rising star. We just want to be a part of the story,” Gokhan Doran, divisional vice president and general manager, Corning International, told PTI.
The company has committed an investment of over Rs 1,000 crore to set up a joint venture with Optiemus Infracom, Bharat Innovative Glass (BIG) Technologies, in Tamil Nadu to manufacture finished cover glass parts for mobile consumer electronic devices.
Corning is also setting up a borosilicate glass unit to produce vials and tubes for the life sciences sector with an initial investment of Rs 500 crore in Hyderabad.
Sudhir N Pillai, Corning’s managing director and president for India, Middle East and Africa, said the company’s Hyderabad plant will become operational in the first half of 2025 and BIG Technologies will be operational in the second half.
“The big technology is for Gorilla Glass finishing. This plant will create 500 to 1,000 jobs. The SGD Corning facility for manufacturing Velocity Vial will employ about 500 people,” Pillai said.
He said the company has started its Global Capacity Centre in Pune, which has a capacity of 100 people.
“This year, the GCC Pune is expected to have around 50 people and by the end of next year it should be ready at full capacity,” Pillai said, adding that all Corning’s businesses in India are at different stages of maturity.
Pillai said automotive and fiber optics verticals are the largest contributors to Corning’s business in India, while mobile consumer electronics and life sciences will be the fastest-growing verticals for the company in the country.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First published: September 12, 2024 | 11:54 PM IS
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