PLI Success: India Captures Half Of Mobile Phone Export Market Moving Out Of China And Vietnam

While mobile phone exports from China and Vietnam are falling, India reported a 40.5 per cent surge in mobile exports in the Financial Year 2024 (FY24), as per officials quoted by The Economic Times.

As China and Vietnam could export 2.78 per cent and 17.6 per cent fewer mobile phones respectively in FY24, India could capture almost half of their lost market. This means that India has been able to shift the bulk of the supply chain from China.

This was the very objective of the smartphone production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. An official quoted by the ET believes that the results are beginning to show now.

While China is still the top exporter of mobile phones, India has been able to bridge the gap. Mobile phone exports from China dropped from $136.3 billion in FY23 to $132.5 billion in FY24.

Similarly, Vietnam witnessed a drop from $31.9 billion in FY23 to $26.27 billion in FY24. The total drop in exports from both these countries is $9.4 billion, while the increase in India's exports is $4.5 billion.

India's mobile phone exports reached $15.6 billion in FY24 from $11.1 billion in FY23. "Data implies India captured nearly 50 per cent of the total decline in mobile exports from China and Vietnam," an official said.

This is a big win for India as per experts, especially when India has geopolitical tensions with China. Narendra Modi government's China+1 strategy to diversify supply chains and manufacturing is showing results.

For instance, India has become the second base of Apple to manufacture iPhone after China. Its three key vendors in India are Foxconn, Pegatron and Wistron (now owned by Tata).

They set up factories in India after the PLI scheme was launched. As a result, the production and exports of Apple from India have doubled in the last two years.