Made in India smartphone shipments fell 8% YoY in Q3 2022, report

Shipment of made-in-India smartphones fell 8% year-on-year (YoY) in the September quarter to 52 million, according to a Counterpoint report published Tuesday. Analysts at the research firm attributed it to a decline in consumer demand in global markets as well as in India. 

Out of the 52 million smartphones shipped during the September quarter, around 7 million were exports, they added. 

Though the number of smartphones produced in India has grown, the high channel inventory at the start of the quarter also impacted manufacturing during the quarter, said Prachir Singh, senior research analyst at Counterpoint Research. 

He added that almost 63% of smartphone shipments in India were by in-house manufacturers while the rest were from third-party electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers. 

Chinese smartphone vendor Oppo led the Made-in-India shipments during the quarter with a 23.8% market share, followed by Samsung (20.7%), and Vivo (12.4%).  EMS providers such as Foxconn subsidiary Bharat FIH which makes smartphones for Xiaomi (8.5%), and Dixon which also makes phones for Samsung, accounted for 8.5% and 7.8% of the shipments, respectively. 

Lava and Chinese firm BYD were the fastest-growing smartphone manufacturers in terms of shipments, according to the report. 

Despite the fall in shipments, Singh is positive that smartphone manufacturing in India is set to grow. “We will continue to see PLI disbursements in subsequent quarters, which will add to the local manufacturing landscape,” he added. 

Singh also pointed out that manufacturing will get a further boost through recent partnerships such as between Tata Group and Wistron and between Foxconn and Vedanta.

Tata Group is in talks with Wistron to buy its iPhone-making facility in Karnataka at an estimated deal of over $600 million, according to an ET report, published in November. Foxconn and Vedanta announced a joint venture in September to spend $20 billion to set up semiconductor plants in Gujarat. 

Further, Priya Joseph, research analyst at Counterpoint, pointed out that the Indian smartphone market has remained resilient. She attributed this to policy interventions by the government in the form of schemes such as the production-linked incentive scheme (PLI) to make India a manufacturing hub. 

Several OEMs including Apple and Samsung now export smartphones assembled in factories in India. 

According to the industry body India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), India is expected to export mobile phones worth $9 billion in FY23 up from $5.8 billion in the previous financial year.