Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Moon Jae-in jointly launched the world's biggest mobile factory in Noida near Delhi on Monday. The unit will have a capacity of fabricating 130 million phones a year, ranging from low-end smartphones that cost under $100 to the company's flagship S9 model. The centre will build 10 million phones a month, 70 per cent of which will be earmarked for domestic usage.
In his address at the event, PM Modi said already 40 Crore Indians own smartphones, 32 Crore use broadband. He added that 30 per cent phones for export will help place the country in the global market. “This step today would lend pace to Make in India, apart from empowering citizens... This is matter of pride for Uttar Pradesh and India,” Modi said. The PM has been pushing foreign firms to set up plans in the country. The government has last year imposed taxes on import of key smartphone components as part of a plan to make India a electronics-manufacturing hub to boost growth and create tens of millions of new jobs.
The brand new 35-acre Samsung Electronics facility at Sector 81 in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, will see Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Moon Jae-in landing together at a quickly-prepared helipad adjacent to the factory. It is one of the first electronics manufacturing facilities set up in the country in the early 1990s, and was established in 1997 when it manufactured TVs. The current mobile phone manufacturing unit was added in 2005.
The South Korean giant announced a Rs 4915 Crore investment to expand the Noida plant last June, and a year later, the new facility is ready to double production. Samsung currently makes 67 million smartphones in India and with the new plant being functional, it is expected to manufacture nearly 120 million mobile phones. Expansion of the current facility will not only double mobile production, but will also double Samsung's production capacity of consumer electronics like refrigerators and flat panel televisions.
Associate Director at Counterpoint Research, Tarun Pathak said the new facility gives an advantage to the company by reducing the time to market. “This will help Samsung bring some local features to the devices powered by R&D here. Apart from this, the company can also bring in export opportunity for Samsung to SAARC and other regions,” he said.
