Samsung opens world's largest phone factory in India; to create 2,000 jobs

NEW DELHI: South Korean technology giant Samsung on Monday inaugurated the world’s largest mobile manufacturing unit in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

With the new facility, Samsung will double its current manufacturing capacity for mobile phones in Noida from 6.8 crore units a year to 12 crore units a year, in a phase-wise expansion that will be completed by 2020.

The new factory, built at an investment of `4,915 crore, will generate 2,000 direct jobs, said South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

“The new facility will create 2,000 direct employment opportunities in India, while additional jobs will be created by part suppliers,” Jae-in said.

At present, Samsung provides 70,000 direct and indirect jobs in the country; 5,000 of them are employed in Noida.

Production in the factory will range from low-end smartphones priced below $100 to the company’s flagship S9 model.

At the event, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the new plant is a testimony of growing economic cooperation between India and Korea. “There is hardly any middle class home in India that doesn’t use a Korean product and Samsung has led that growth. The company has strengthened India-South Korea ties,” Modi said.

Repeating the success of his pet project Make-in-India, Modi said that the two nations are best suited to work with each other as Korea has the technology and India the manufacturing capacity and software support.

The factory, which will produce one crore units per month, will also be utilised as an export hub by Samsung. According to officials, close to 30 per cent of the output will be exported to Middle-Eastern and African nations.

The factory is also expected to help the Korean giant to consolidate its leadership position in the Indian mobile market, which currently is facing strong competition in the smartphone segment by Chinese players such as Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and others.

Samsung has two manufacturing plants — in Noida, UP and in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu — and five research and development centres in India.

India’s smartphone market grew 14 per cent with total shipments of 124 million units in 2017, the fastest pace of growth among the top 20 markets, according to International Data Corp.

Last year, India overtook the US to become the world’s second-largest smartphone market after China. There will be 780 million connected smartphones in 2021, compared with 359 million in 2016, according to a study by Cisco Systems.