Samsung Electronics has today announced the opening of what is claimed to be the world’s biggest mobile phone manufacturing plant. Situated in Noida, India, this plant capable of producing up to 120 million phones every year. The factory was inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Moon Jae-in earlier today. This new plant is a big win for Modi’s flagship programme “Make in India,” which encourages overseas investors to manufacture in the country.
World’s largest phone factory
India is Asia’s third-largest economy and world’s fastest growing smartphone market. The country, in fact, already has over 400 million smartphone users. According to IDC, India’s smartphone market grew 14% in 2017, fastest among the top 20 markets, with total shipments reaching 124-million units. But the country’s population of 1.3 billion means there’s still a huge potential out there.
The Asian country has already seen investments from Chinese smartphone giants, Xiaomi and Oppo, both of which are building factories in India. Xiaomi, especially, has emerged to be a big competitor to Samsung lately, dethroning it as India’s largest smartphone vendor. Samsung clearly doesn’t want to slip further down the ranks in a market it has dominated for so long. And this new plant should prove to be a major boost going forward for the South Korean giant.
Samsung’s mobile manufacturing plant in Noida currently has a capacity of producing around 67 million phones in a year. The company had announced an investment of Rs 4,915 crore ($716.57 million) for the Noida plant last year, and here we see the result. The 35-acre factory is now capable of producing up to 120 million phones every year, making it the world’s largest. Samsung will reportedly make both entry-level phones as well as flagship devices in its new plant. And as the company promised earlier this year, it might also produce India and Indian subcontinent-focused smartphones here.
