The Indian manufacturer plans to set up three new factories in 2016
Indian smartphone maker Micromax expects to manufacture all of its mobile phones in India by 2018 due to increasing local demand and higher labor costs in China, local press reported.
The company’s co-founder Rahul Sharma said less than two-thirds of the firm’s smartphones are assembled in India. Micromax, which focuses on the production of low-cost smartphones, said it expects to invest 3 billion rupees ($45 million) to construct three new factories in the country. The new plants will be located in Rajasthan, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and are scheduled to become operational next year.
The company said once all the units are operational, Micromax will have a capacity of about 4 million units. Each factory is expected to employ approximately 3,000 to 3,500 people. Micromax currently operates an assembly unit in Rudrapur, Uttarakhand, which assembles nearly 1 million units, while the rest of the smartphones are imported from China.
Micromax is currently the second largest smartphone seller in the Indian market behind South Korean smartphone manufacturer Samsung.
Huawei ships 100 million smartphones globally in 2015
In other APAC news, Chinese ICT solutions provider Huawei said it shipped 100 million smartphones in 2015, making the Chinese firm the world’s No. 3 smartphone brand behind Apple and Samsung.
According to data from IDC, Huawei accounted for 7.5% of all phones shipped globally in the third quarter of 2015. Apple accounted for 13.5% while Samsung represented 24% of global shipments in the quarter. Huawei’s market share in the Chinese smartphone market is currently near 15%.
In Northern and Central European markets, the Chinese company shipped more than 3.46 million smartphones in 2015, climbing 114% year-over-year.
