Apple, Samsung give $5 bn to boost local manufacturing

As India renews its thrust on local manufacturing of electronics under the production-linked incentive scheme with Union Budget 2022-23 around the corner, Apple and Samsung alone are expected to manufacture/assemble smartphones worth around $5 billion (nearly Rs 37,000 crore) in the financial year 2021-22.

The two giants are set to surpass the PLI targets set by the government by over 50 per cent, according to industry experts.

“The leading global value chains firms have got off to a blazing start. Besides Pegatron and Bharat FIH which are now gearing up, the big three -Wistron, Pegatron and Samsung — will achieve significant production of $5 billion in 2022,” Pankaj Mohindroo, Chairman of the India Association said.

Apple’s contract manufacturers in India — Foxconn and Wistron — will avail the PLI incentives for the first time this year.

The iPhone maker’s second biggest global manufacturer Pegatron is likely to commence operations in India this year.

Samsung, which has the world’s largest mobile handset manufacturing factory in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, will avail the incentives under the scheme for the second year.

According to Mohindroo, Indian players like Lava, Padget Electronics (Dixon) and UTL also appear to be cracking the thresholds while “Opteimus and Bhagwati are gearing up”. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last year extended the PLI scheme for large-scale electronics manufacturing with a focus on mobile phones by a year until 2025-26, though the base year of the scheme 2019-20 remains the same.

The PLI scheme provides an incentive of 4 per cent to 6 per cent on incremental sales of goods under target segments that are manufactured in India, for five years.

Apple and Samsung are also exporting locally-produced smartphones to the world like never before.

In 2021, the top countries that ‘Make in India’ iPhones were exported to include the UK (27 per cent), Japan (24 per cent), the Netherlands (23 per cent), Germany (7 per cent), Italy (4 per cent), Turkey (4 per cent) and the UAE (2 per cent).