Make In India: Xiaomi To Set Up Three New Smartphone Plants In India Along With PCB Manufacturing Facility

Xiaomi today (9 April) commenced its maiden Supplier Investment Summit in India and with the announcement of setting up three new smartphone factories in the country, along with a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) manufacturing facility.

Xiaomi has organised the summit with the aim of bringing about its 50 plus component suppliers to set up manufacturing bases in India. The summit will go on till 11 April and the manufacturers will be visiting different Indian states to evaluate the avenues for domestic production.

“India is the most important market for Xiaomi outside Mainland China and a major manufacturing hub today, hence, the suppliers will be visiting different states to evaluate opportunities for setting up local base in the country,” the invite to the suppliers read as reported by The Hindu Business Line.

Another major announcement made by Xiaomi was the setting up of a Surface Mount Technology (SMT) plant in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu for manufacturing PCB units within the country. PCB is one of the most important parts of the smartphone which contributes more than 50 per cent of the smartphone’s value.

Xiaomi currently has two smartphone assembly units in Andhra Pradesh and one power bank manufacturing unit in Uttar Pradesh, and reportedly 95 per cent of its smartphones sold in the country are domestically assembled. Xiaomi’s plants now employ over 10,000 people in the country with more than 95 per cent of them being females.

The move comes after the government introduced a 10 per cent import duty on smartphone components like camera modules and PCBs. The company hopes that by Q3 2018, all its locally assembled smartphones will have PCBs made at the new Tamil Nadu facility.