Indian smartphones ringing loud in export markets: emerge fourth most exported item in FY24

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Backed by aggressive government policy instruments such as the production-linked-incentive scheme, smartphones have emerged as a rising star in India’s basket of exports, rising from the fifth biggest item in FY23 to the fourth in FY24, commerce ministry data reveal. The value of smartphone exports rose to $15.6 billion in FY24 – a remarkable feat considering the fact that only since April 2022 did India begin collating data separately for smartphones.

Last financial year, smartphones edged past petrol as the fourth most exported product from India, where the export list is dominated by petroleum products.

The spectacular export performance in the last financial year which was powered by a 158% increase in shipments was aided by exports to the US, the UK, UAE, Holland. While shipments to the US reached $5.6 billion, United Arab Emirates was at the second place importing $2.6 billion worth of handsets. The Netherlands with $1.2 billion and the UK with $1.1 billion occupied the third and fourth spot. Italy had the fifth spot importing smartphones worth $0.8 bn in the last financial year.

Exports to the US rose 158% compared to the previous year. The rates of growth in exports to the other countries were as follows – the UK 33.57%, Holland (11.26%), Italy (11.26%) and UAE (0.05%).

The top five export items in India’s basket in 2023-24 were automotive diesel (value $28.7 bn), polished diamond ($15.9 bn), aviation turbine fuel ($15.7 bn), smartphones ($15.6 bn) and motor gasoline ($13.4 bn).

Estimates by the Indian Cellular and Electronics Association has put the cumulative value of handsets manufactured for domestic and overseas markets at Rs 4.1 lakh crore or $49.16 billion in FY24. This represents a growth of more than 17% compared with the previous year.

Smartphones have achieved stellar success in the PLI scheme that has also powered India to rise as the second biggest manufacturing base in the world for handsets after China. India has also benefitted immensely from the search of phone brands for a second manufacturing base beyond China due to a variety of factors from geopolitical tensions to prick points in the Chinese economy.

Most important, Apple has been the icing on the manufacturing cake in India. Three of iPhone contract manufacturers such as Foxconn, Wistron India (now under the Tatas) and Pegatron have been consistently ramping up production from India. Apple’s global competitor Samsung is also a beneficiary of the PLI scheme.

The rise in exports from India is substantially attributable to the spectacular track record of Apple. Its shipments of mobile devices abroad is estimated to have crossed Rs 1.2 lakh crore ($14.39 billion) in 2023-24 – a sharp 33% rise from Rs 90,000 crore in 2022-23. ICEA statistics suggest that exports in the last financial year accounted for about 30% of the total production value. It was about 25% in 2022-23.

With Google now tying up with Indian contract manufacturing major Dixon Technologies to make Pixel Phones in India, the export scenario of handsets from India is set to ring louder.