Samsung nearly doubles smartphone manufacturing capacity

Korean electronics giant Samsung went in for a major expansion of its India operations, nearly doubling the manufacturing capacity at its Noida plant from 68 million devices annually to 120 million. The move, however, comes at a time when China’s Xiaomi has taken leadership position in the Indian smartphone market, moving ahead of Samsung in market share.


Samsung’s Rs 5,000-crore expansion plans were announced at the company’s premises here in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Korean president Moon Jae-in and Samsung’s vicechairman Jay Y Lee.


Samsung said that the fresh capacity addition, which will be completed by 2020, will enable the company to begin exports to countries in the Middle East and African regions. The target is to export 30% of the production from the factory.

The company’s overseas shipments from India are currently very low, but the fresh capacity is expected to give a boost to export plans.

Modi said that Samsung’s expansion plans are a big booster to the country’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, and will also give a fillip to the economic relations between India and Korea. He said that Korean brands have become a household name in India.

The strong growth of smartphones in India, coupled with lower data charges and faster internet speeds, is enabling the delivery of digital services in the country. The Korean president said that apart from the investments from Samsung, additional capital and jobs will be created by the suppliers to the electronics company.

Samsung’s fresh impetus in India comes at a time when Xiaomi has been growing aggressively in the market. Xiaomi’s market share has grown bigger than Samsung over the past few quarters, according to numbers put out by research firms CounterPoint and Canalys. Xiaomi’s aggressive pricing and stronghold in the online marketplace have seen the Chinese company emerge as a serious competitor to Samsung.

Samsung makes the entire range of its smartphones at the Noida factory and these include the flagship devices Galaxy S9 and Note 8. The company has said it will grow the number of models as well as its retail presence in India further to shore up numbers.