Noida ‘Make In India’ Hub To Manufacture 30% Of The World’s Mobile Phones By 2025

The so-called ‘Make in India’ smartphone and mobile phone manufacturing hub in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida is set to manufacture 30% of all mobile phones in the world by 2025, according to the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA)

The manufacturing hub is estimated to 1 Bn mobile phones by 2025, with more than 80 mobile manufacturing factories currently operating in Noida providing employment to over 50K people. These units include the manufacturing of mobile headsets as well as components for headsets, including mobile chargers, adapters, batteries, earphones and other accessories.

Pankaj Mohindroo, chairman of ICEA told IANS that Noida is envisioned to become a global hub for mobile phone and components manufacturing. He said, “ We estimate that out of the targeted $190 Bn value production and 100 Cr volume of phones to be produced by 2025, 30% of mobile phones will be manufactured in Noida, which is over $57 Bn productions of just phones, a 4x increase from the present numbers.”

Further, Mohindroo claims that in the next 4 to 5 years, the component and sub-assembly industry in Noida will be valued at $20-25 Bn. It is already home to Samsung, OPPO, Vivo, LAVA and many more. The South Korean tech company Samsung is set to double its mobile phone manufacturing capacity in Noida from 6.8 Cr to 12 Cr units a year by 2020. This is the world’s biggest smartphone manufacturing unit currently.

Previously, it had said that it would invest INR 2,500 Cr ($360 Mn) to transform its India operations into a hub for components business.

Similarly, Chinese electronic giant BBK’s smartphone brand OPPO, which manufactures 5 Cr smartphones annually at its Kasna-based factory in Greater Noida also aims to double capacity by next year, said Sumit Walia, VP, product and marketing at OPPO India.

Another BBK brand Vivo also rolled out a new manufacturing facility in Greater Noida last month, with an investment plan of INR 7,500. The company is set to manufacture more than 3.3 Cr devices annually, up from its current production run of 2.5 Cr units. Interestingly, Noida saw the production of 29 Cr units during 2018-2019.

Moreover, according to the National Policy on Electronics 2019 which aims to promote domestic manufacturing and export in the value-chain of ESDM (Electronics System Design and Manufacturing), plans to achieve a turnover of INR 28 Lakh Cr by 2025.

According to ASSOCHAM-PwC report, India currently has over 450 million smartphone users, the number of which is expected to reach 859 million by 2022. Many Indian companies are also exporting phones made in India to global markets, which is expected to be a major boost for the smartphone manufacturing industry.

Recently, Apple also opened the next phase of its manufacturing unit in India, where the tech giant has started commercial production of its newer model iPhone XR in Chennai. Prior to this, the company had limited its manufacturing of iPhone 6S, SE and assembling of iPhone 7 in India.

The Indian smartphone market saw the highest-ever second-quarter shipment of 36.9 Mn in 2019, as per the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Asia/Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.