China's Xiaomi expands manufacturing in India, adds 3 new partners for smartphones, smart TVs

Chinese technology company Xiaomi, which happens to be the number one smartphone brand in the country, is expanding its manufacturing in India. Xiaomi has added three more partners, of which, two will set up manufacturing plants for smartphones and one for smart TVs. The new partnerships are expected to further increase Mi India's manufacturing capacity in India.

The two new manufacturing partners - DBG and BYD - will manufacture smartphones for Xiaomi in India. DBG has already set up a smartphone manufacturing plant in Haryana. Xiaomi India's partnership with DBG has increased its monthly manufacturing capacity by about 20 per cent. On the other hand, BYD is setting up a plant in Tamil Nadu. BYD India is also expected to contribute significantly to the production capacity once its operations begin by H1 of 2021. For smart TVs, Xiaomi has also onboarded Radiant Technology as a new manufacturing partner.

Other than ramping manufacturing products in India, Xiaomi has increasingly sourced smartphone components locally. Components such as PCBA (motherboard), sub-board, camera module, battery, back panel, USB cable, chargers, boxes and many more components are locally sourced or locally manufactured, which contribute to more than 75 per cent of the value of smartphones. These components are being manufactured by partners such as Sunny India, NVT, Salcomp, LY Tech, Sunvoda to name a few.

Manu Kumar Jain, MD, Mi India says, "2020 was an exceptional year, the pandemic led to multiple challenges disrupting the entire global and India supply chain. Despite this, the Mi India team worked together to further expand our local supply chain and manufacturing capability. Being committed to India's growth, Mi India was one of the first adopters of the Honorable Prime Minister's Make-in-India initiative, back in 2015. Today we are renewing our commitment by adding new manufacturing partners such as DBG and BYD for smartphones and Radiant technology for smart TVs. Now 99 per cent of our smartphones and 100 per cent of our smart TVs are manufactured in India and the majority of the components for smartphones will be locally manufactured or sourced from India. We hope to play a small role in building India as a global manufacturing hub."

Xiaomi was successfully catering 95 per cent of the smartphone domestic demand via products manufactured in India at its contract manufacturing partner Foxconn and Flex. However, the disruption caused due to the COVID-19 pandemic last year, including lockdowns, shortage of components and more, had increased Xiaomi's reliance on imports as well. However, with the new manufacturing plants, Xiaomi is hopeful to cater to 99 per cent of the domestic demand through made-in-India smartphones.

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