New Delhi: Micromax co-founder Rahul Sharma on Thursday said that Indian consumer electronics firm Micromax Informatics will manufacture all of its phones in India by 2018, as it shifts production from China back home, where costs are becoming cheaper.
Sharma said that with less than two-thirds of its products are assembled in India currently and full home production now made economic sense given rising Chinese labour costs and a growing network of local suppliers of components.
“In the next 24 months 100 per cent will be here. There was no ecosystem in India. Slowly, slowly we are attracting one. In terms of manpower, India is far cheaper (than China).” he told Reuters in an exclusive interview.
Micromax, which has grown rapidly since 2008 by selling low-cost smartphones, would invest Rs 3 billion ($45 million) on constructing new factories and would make more phones in India to cut its dependence on Chinese imports.
Micromax is the second largest smartphone seller behind South Korea’s Samsung in India, the world’s third biggest smartphone market.
The company, controlled by its founders, said in April it was looking to raise capital from investors or through a stock listing as it expands into new businesses like personal computing. It has held talks with investors led by Japan’s SoftBank Corp to sell a stake, sources said in March.
The world’s most powerful smartphone, Yutopia, was launched on Thursday by Micromax brand YU.
