BENGALURU (Reuters) – China‘s Xiaomi Corp is enlisting more contract manufacturers to make its phones in India, adding heft in a country where it is already one of the biggest smartphone brands.
China’s BYD and DBG will be the company’s new suppliers in India, Manu Jain, managing director of Xiaomi’s India operations, said at a press conference on Thursday.
Xiaomi has been manufacturing phones in India for over half a decade and has rapidly grown in the highly competitive market where voice calling and data costs are one of the lowest in the world.
“Now 99% of our smartphones and 100% of our smart TVs are manufactured in India and the majority of the components for smartphones will be locally manufactured or sourced from India,” the company said.
The company remained India’s top smartphone seller in 2020, with a 26% market share, data from research firm Counterpoint showed.
Its latest expansion plans come at a time when Chinese firms have come under scrutiny as a result of growing tensions between New Delhi and Beijing that began with a border clash last year.
Xiaomi said DBG has set up a smartphone manufacturing plant in the northern Indian state of Haryana, while BYD is setting up a plant in Tamil Nadu in south India.
The company has also opened a new factory in the southern state of Telangana to make televisions, Jain said, adding that all televisions sold in India would be made or assembled locally.
Xiaomi also makes phones at plants in India run by contract manufacturers Foxconn Technology Co and Flex Ltd.
(Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal in New Delhi and Philip George in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
