Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin inaugurated today the refrigerator manufacturing facility of Samsung India Ltd at Sriperumbudur, Chennai -- the second refrigerator unit of the company in India.
Congratulating Samsung India for quickly ramping up its production facility in Chennai, Stalin urged the company to make further investment in Tamil Nadu in new areas. Stalin pointed out, “The Government of India has recently announced a programme called ‘Jawaharlal Nehru Solar Mission’, with an ambitious target of promoting 20,000 MW of solar power projects. This programme has created a huge demand for solar PV cells and modules. I take this opportunity to request Samsung to consider investing in Tamil Nadu in this emerging area of solar PV cells, in addition to manufacturing LCD and plasma panels, compressors for consumer durables here in Chennai.”
Stalin said Samsung India signed an MoU with the Tamil Nadu government on November 10, 2006 for establishing a consumer durables project, with an investment of Rs 450 crore, at Sriperumpudur Industrial Park. Within a year, the plant got ready and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, inaugurated the plant on November 13, 2007. “As against the committed investment of Rs 450 crore, I am glad to know that Samsung has invested Rs 576 crore till date, and employed about 1,500 persons, directly and indirectly,” Stalin pointed out.
Encouraged by the support extended by the state and the success of the Chennai plant, Samsung has decided to invest additionally Rs 350 crore for the manufacture of refrigerators, Stalin said, adding that the government has also offered an attractive package of support for this expansion plant.
In India, Samsung had become a household name and the market leader in a number of consumer durables and home appliances. Samsung has also done well in rightly choosing Tamil Nadu for making its investments, Stalin said.
Today, Tamil Nadu has become the largest manufacturing hub for electronic hardware including consumer durables and automobiles. A study by Nokia found total cost of manufacturing in Chennai much cheaper than even China by over 11 per cent in NPV terms, Stalin added.
Fortune 500 companies like Samsung, Dell, Motorola, Videocon, etc., have chosen Tamil Nadu to establish their manufacturing plants.
For the year 2010, the India Today magazine has ranked Tamil Nadu as No. 3 in composite business ranking. “The  first two places have gone to Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. Both the states are small relatively. So, I can say that Tamil Nadu is No. 1 among the bigger states.”
Among those who took part in the function were Korean Ambassador to India J K Kim, J S Shin, president and CEO, Samsung, South-West Asia, Rajeev Ranjan, principal secretary to Industries department, Tami Nadu government, J W Kim, MD, Samsung, Chennai, and Ravinder Zutshi, deputy MD, Samsung, Chennai.
Shin said Samsung had invested over $ 100 million in the Sriperumbudur complex. The refrigerator plant had come up with an investment of $ 75 million with an installed capacity of 1.2 million units per annum and providing employment to 500 persons directly.
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