New Delhi,
Chinese handset maker Xiaomi said on Monday it has set up three new smartphone manufacturing units in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh as also a facility for printed circuit board (PCB).

The expansion in capacity will help Xiaomi produce more devices locally to meet the demand and consolidate its position in the hyper-competitive Indian smartphone market.

“We had two facilities for smartphone manufacturing earlier. Now, we have added three more in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh and Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu. These are in partnership with Foxconn,” Xiaomi VP and India Managing Director Manu Jain said.

Besides, a small number of phones are also being made in Noida with another partner Hipad, he added.

While he didn’t disclose the investment details, Jain said this will double Xiaomi’s manufacturing capacity in India to two phones per second during operational hours.

These facilities employ over 10,000 people and 95% are women, Jain added.

Xiaomi is also setting up a new PCB assembly unit in Sriperumbudur in partnership with Foxconn.

“We are committed to manufacturing in India. PCB is 50% of the value of a phone… By Q3, all Xiaomi phones made in India will have PCBs that are locally assembled,” he said.

The announcement comes within a fortnight after the Indian government levied 10% import duty on some key smartphone components, including populated PCBs.

The government has been taking a number of steps to promote electronics manufacturing in the country, including mobile phones. While assembly of mobile phones has been gaining traction, the focus is now on component manufacturing as a significant chunk of these are still imported from countries like China.