Buoyed by the strong sales of its mobile handsets, Samsung Electronics on Thursday announced tripling the manufacturing capacity of its mobile manufacturing unit at Noida from 1.2 crore handsets to 3.6 crore handsets annually with an investment of $70 million (around Rs.315 crore).
Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot, who formally inaugurated the new section of the plant in Noida, said the government would soon come out with ‘National Electronics Mission' to give boost to manufacturing of electronic products. “From $50 billion today, the electronics sector is likely to reach $400 billion by 2022…we are taking all steps to develop India as a global manufacturing hub for electronic products. We are not only becoming largest consumers, we also have huge talent pool and raw material…India will soon be a centre for global sourcing of electronic products,” the Minister said.
According to J. S. Shin, President and CEO, Samsung South West Asia, “India is one of the top three-mobile markets for us in the world. Given the strong potential of this market, we are working on consistently strengthening our presence in the country through an innovative mobile portfolio as well as enhanced manufacturing and R&D operations”.
Pointing out that Samsung's mobile manufacturing unit at Noida was the Korean firm's sixth overseas manufacturing unit in the world, Mr. Shin said total investment at the plant was $100 million including the latest infusion. “We will produce almost all mobiles that we currently have in our portfolio. And if the sales of our high-end products such as tablets and smartphones grow fast, we might start producing them in India also. Through this expansion, we have created 1,500 new jobs, taking the total headcount at the facility to 4,000,” Mr. Shin added. Samsung in India has been clocking a 40-50 per cent growth, while the mobile business has been growing exponentially by 70-80 per cent. Today, Samsung has over 28 per cent market share (on value terms) in the mobile handset market and is the second largest player.
