India now world’s 2nd largest smartphone market

◗ India, which saw a shipment of 40.4 million units during the third quarter, was second to China where 100.6 million smartphones were shipped, the data showed

though both countries were hit by weaker seasonal performance compared with last year,” it said.

Worldwide smartphone shipments fell by 7.2 per cent year- on- year to 348.9 million units during JulySeptember 2018, a fourth consecutive quarter of decline, Canalys said.

“This was also the worst third quarter performance since 2015... Seven of the top 10 markets recorded year- on- year declines, caused by lengthening smartphone replacement cycles, worsening international trading conditions and competition from major Chinese vendors,” it added.

The three markets ( among the top 10) that registered growth were Indonesia ( 13.2 per cent increase y- o- y to 8.9 million units), Russia ( 11.5 per cent jump y- o- y to 8.8 million units), and Germany ( 2.4 per cent rise y- o- y to 5.5 million units).

China’s smartphone shipment declined 15.2 per cent y- o- y, India by 1.1 per cent and the US by 0.4 per cent in the September 2018 quarter. Samsung led the vendor tally with 20.4 per cent share in the said quarter, followed by Huawei ( 14.9 per cent), Apple ( 13.4 per cent), Xiaomi ( 9.6 per cent), and Oppo ( 8.9 per cent).

“The worldwide smartphone market faces an unprecedented challenge, while its dynamics are changing rapidly at both the vendor and country level. This is providing growth opportunities for aggressive vendors with the speed to respond quickly to market changes,” Canalys Research Manager Rushabh Doshi said. The commerce ministry said on Thursday that export of raw sugar from India to China will begin early next year.

“A contract for exporting 15,000 tonnes of raw sugar has been entered to by the Indian Sugar Mills Association ( ISMA) and COFCO, a Government of China run public sector company,” said the ministry.

This is due to the initiative taken by the commerce ministry and several rounds of meetings held by officials of both countries the import of raw sugar has materialised now, it said.

The ministry said that India plans to export 2 MT of raw sugar to China beginning from next year.

Raw sugar is the second product after nonbasmati rice that China will import from India. It is a move to reduce the $ 60 billion trade deficit that China has with India. India’s export to China in 2017- 18 amounted to $ 33 billion while imports from China stood at $ 76.2 billion.

India is the largest producer of sugar in the world with 32 MT production in 2018.

India produces sugar of all three grades — raw, refined and white.

Indian sugar is also of a high quality and is Dextran free because of the minimum time taken from cut to crush.

“India is in a position to become a regular and dependable exporter of high quality sugar in significant volumes to China,” said the ministry.