Electronics giants make India hub for exports

Kolkata: In a boost to the government’s make in India programme, international consumer electronic giants like Samsung, LG and Panasonic have started exporting products made under the programme to developed nations such as the US, UK, South Korea, Japan, France and Germany.These global companies in India were only exporting to smaller emerging markets such as the SAARC, Middle East, South Asian, African and Latin American nations till now, while the government had been trying to make India self-reliant in production for both the domestic and global markets.As per latest regulatory filings at the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Samsung said it has commenced export of make in India mobile phones to the US apart from South Korea, Germany, France and the UK. The South Korean giant has also started export of components from India to over 12 global production hubs including Vietnam, China, South Korea and Brazil.Senior company executives said LG has started export of premium large capacity refrigerators from India to Western European nations that were earlier done from China to build alternate global sourcing hubs, while Panasonic too has commenced export of small appliances like rice cookers, mixer grinders, carbon rods for dry cell batteries to Japan, US and Europe.LG India vice president Vijay Babu said while exports are still low at 10-12% of our overall business, the fact that premium models are now exported from India to developed nations is due to the fact that India has achieved cost competence, scale in manufacturing and also in line with government initiatives.Panasonic India CEO Manish Sharma said in categories like AC, as the domestic market and manufacturing scales up, the company will be competitive for exports to developed nations.As per RoC filings, Samsung India’s gross export revenue from products surged 83% in 2019-20 to Rs 24,918 crore from Rs 13,606 crore in FY19. The company runs the world’s largest mobile phone factory in India, which will be used for exports and is also setting up a unit for mobile phone displays that also has export potential.Market researcher IDC India research director Navkendar Singh said several mobile phone companies, including the Chinese brands, are now planning to export handsets from India to developed markets with the investment on building local manufacturing scale. “This will only gain pace as companies invest more in India to take advantage of the PLI scheme,” he said.Industry executives said companies like Apple will also explore such opportunities since one of the main criteria of the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme is to export. Even Oppo has started on a small scale, they said.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/39IbVNX