Chinese phone major Huawei announced that it will start smartphone manufacturing in India from October.
Huawei has tied up with Flex to manufacture one of the Honor smartphones models in Chennai. The phone manufacturing plant will have the capacity to make three million smartphones by the end of 2017.
Phone makers in India are under pressure to make phones in India to promote local manufacturing and reduce imports from countries such as China, Taiwan, etc.
“We are working towards making India an electronic manufacturing hub. As India is set to become the second largest smartphone market, our government would like to invite even more businesses to come and manufacture in India,” said Ravi Shankar Prasad, union minister, Information & Technology, Law and Justice.
Huawei said it will be strengthening its after sales services in India with over 200 service centers, including more than 30 exclusive Huawei service centers in India. At present, Huawei is not in the top 3 smartphone brands in India.
Huawei Consumer Business Group will expand its distribution network by partnering with more than 50,000 retail outlets by the end of 2016. This retail network will add to the existing 350+ distributors in India.
“We recently launched our world class GSC in Bengaluru and the start of manufacturing in India is an affirmation of our commitment to India and supports the Make in India campaign,” said Jay Chen, CEO of Huawei India.
Huawei has launched a series of products, for both the Huawei and Honor brands, including P9 in India this year. Google has also collaborated with Huawei to make its Nexus 6P device.
