According to the latest news, China’s Xiaomi Corp is enlisting more contract manufacturers to make its phones in India. The firm is adding heft in a nation where it is already one of the largest smartphone brands.
The managing director of Xiaomi’s India operations, Manu Jain made an announcement. He said that China’s BYD and DBG would be its new suppliers in India. DBG has a smartphone manufacturing plant in Haryana, while BYD has in Tamil Nadu.
Chinese giant Xiaomi has been manufacturing phones in India for over half a decade. It has rapidly increased in the extremely competitive market where voice calling and data costs are among the lowest in the world.
According to the company, the new partnerships should boost Xiaomi’s manufacturing capacity in India by over 20% and support the local government’s Make in India initiative. The Indian government set up the Make in India initiative in late-2014 to encourage firms to manufacture in India.
Xiaomi believes that because of the new partnerships, it would make locally over 99% of its Indian smartphones. Moreover, the company added that most smartphone components, including the motherboard, subboard, camera module, battery, back panel, USB cable, and chargers, will be locally sourced or locally manufactured.
Before these new partnerships, Xiaomi’s Indian smartphone manufacturing went all via Foxconn and Flex.
Xiaomi took up over 28% of the Indian market.
Moreover, Manu Kumar Jain, Xiaomi India managing director, announced that 2020 was an exceptional year. The reason behind this is the pandemic. It led to multiple challenges disrupting the entire global and Indian supply chain. However, the Mi India team worked together further to expand the local supply chain and manufacturing capability.
Xiaomi remained India’s top smartphone seller in 2020, with a 26% market share.
Furthermore, Xiaomi will add 10,000 people to its Indian workforce, amounting to 60,000 employees.
Another essential thing to mention is that Xiaomi has also opened a new factory in the southern state of Telangana to make televisions. Hence, all televisions sold in India would be locally made or assembled.
The company also makes phones at plants in India run by contract manufacturers Foxconn Technology Co and Flex Ltd.
Xiaomi has been India’s most popular smartphone brand since 2019, taking up over 28% of the Indian market, while Samsung only accounted for about 25%. Moreover, more than 66% of India’s market share belongs to Chinese brands.
