Xiaomi to open 3 new phone plants in India

new delhi — Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi on Monday announced the opening of three more smartphone plants in India — along with the company’s first Surface Mount Technology (SMT) plant in Chennai that will manufacture printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) units in the country.

Announcing this at the first-ever ‘Supplier Investment Summit’ being held in the capital, Manu Jain, vice-president, Xiaomi Global and managing director, Xiaomi India, said Xiaomi is one of the pioneers in the country to start local assembly of PCBA.

“Xiaomi’s high-quality, well-designed products at honest prices have been instrumental in disrupting the Indian smartphone industry. I believe we will continue to play a key role in transforming India into a global manufacturing hub,” Jain told reporters here.

Earlier this month, the government imposed a 10 per cent tax on imports of key smartphone components, including PCBs.

The three-day summit was attended by over 50 global smartphone component suppliers, with the aim of helping them set up local manufacturing units in the country. “If all the suppliers set base in India, this would potentially bring in an added investment of over Rs15,000 crore and create 50,000 job opportunities,” the company said.

The summit was inaugurated by Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog; Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary, DIPP and Deepak Bagla, CEO, Invest India. The three new smartphone plants — in partnership with Foxconn — are located across campuses in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh and a new campus in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu. The factories with Foxconn now employ more than 10,000 people, of which more than 95 per cent are women.