November 24, 2024

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[ET NEWS] Samsung Electronics is expected to double phone production in India, with the expansion work being completed soon to start operations later this year, according to industry sources on May 30.

The Korean tech giant has been expanding its production lines in Noida, a city in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh, to increase its phone production capacity from the current 5 million units per month to 10 million units. A total of 50 billion rupees (US$736.90 million) has been invested in the expansion.

India has become one of the company’s three global production bases along with China and Vietnam. Samsung produces more than 20 million phones in Vietnam and 10 million units in China every year.

Samsung also will be ramping up marketing and sales activities in India. The world’s largest smartphone maker used to top the local market for years but it had to surrender the leadership to its Chinese rival Xiaomi in the fourth quarter last year for the first time.

With the increased production, Samsung plans to speed up launch schedules and produce India-only budget models to better appeal to local consumers.

By Kwon Kun-ho (wingh1@etnews.com)
This story was co-produced by ET News and The Investor.