An industry executive with ties to the lone remaining glass-to-glass CRT recycling operation says the company, Videocon, will be continuing to manufacture CRT TVs and monitors for at least another three years.
If accurate, such a time frame would provide breathing room for U.S. companies needing to move collected glass downstream.
“The CRT market is likely to exist for three years, if not more,” Albino Bessa, president of Videocon glass supplier Technologies Displays Americas, told E-Scrap News.
Bessa said global demand for the Videocon’s line of CRT TVs is compensating for a shrinking Indian market.
“Videocon is not aiming at the Indian market only,” Bessa said. “Its glass production caters to the global market. And the global market is being served accordingly.”
Bessa would not say the degree to which Videocon’s current CRT business is supported by non-Indian buyers, but he noted that “combined volumes are high.”
Videocon is the only company in the world that still recycles old CRTs to make new ones, operating the glass-to-glass process at its facility in Bharuch, India. It has become a much-used CRT recycling outlet for U.S. e-scrap companies in recent years, and the question of how long the company would continue to show demand for CRT glass has lingered over the industry.
A November article in The Hindu Business Line noted Videocon’s chief operating officer, CM Singh, said the CRT market in India would last at least another year. The statement sparked a post on the blog of e-scrap consultant and research firm Transparent Planet.
The Hindu Business Line also mentioned Videocon’s possible growing interest in manufacturing flat-panel display televisions. Bessa challenged that notion.
“As far as I know, Videocon is not planning to produce flat panels yet,” he said, adding that most of India is still unable to afford the higher price tag of the sleeker models.