India's monthly cell phones exports touch $1 billion

According to the Economic Times, for the first time in September, the country's monthly exports of mobile phones crossed the $1 billion threshold. The exports of Mobile phones received a boost from the government's production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme that encouraged mobile phone companies like Apple and Samsung to improve domestic manufacturing in domestic and international markets.

According to data shared by Economic Times, mobile shipments from April to September have doubled to $4.2 billion from the initial $1.7 billion for the same period last year. This means that the estimated value of smartphone exports increased by more than 200 per cent in the span of one year from September 2021 and September 2022.

This year between June and August the exports came up to roughly $700 million per month. Industry insiders claim that the leaders of export growth have been Apple contract manufacturers Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron along with Samsung. Samsung is the leading international participant in the PLI programme that was unveiled in April 2020.

In the smartphone exports by the country, approximately 75-80 per cent are made up of global majors.

The PLI scheme for smartphones was intended to lure manufacturers to the country. India plans to overtake China and Vietnam which continue to export more mobile phones than any other country in the world. Even Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra commended the PLI scheme for mobile phones on Twitter.

Earlier the biggest monthly export of smartphones was in December 2021 with cell phones worth $770 million being exported. If production data are to be compared then an upward trend is clearly visible from the jump from 1 per cent in 2016-17 to 16 per cent in 2021-22. The group predicts that this will again increase to almost 22 per cent of production this year.

Published on: Friday, October 14, 2022, 01:16 PM IST