Who is winning the smartphone exports race - Vietnam or India: Data

Smartphone exports from India rose from 1% to 2.5% in a decade. In the same period, Vietnam’s share in global smartphone exports grew from 1% to 12%

In recent times, India has laid much emphasis on smartphone exports. In November 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded phone exports as they crossed the $5 billion mark. At the 2023 India Mobile Congress, Mr. Modi said “soon the whole world will be using made-in-India phones”. The government credited the Production Linked Incentive scheme for major smartphone companies shifting their suppliers to India. These were in line with the ambitious target set in the National Policy on Electronics 2019, that India will be exporting 600 million mobile phones worth $110 billion by 2025.

With barely a year left for this goal, India’s smartphone exports are hovering below $10 billion a year, just a fraction of the target. While India continues to manufacture a significant number of smartphones, most of it is consumed domestically. Recently, Reuters reported on a letter and a confidential presentation drafted by the IT Ministry earlier in January this year, in which, Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar had expressed his concerns about India losing out to China and Vietnam due to high tariffs on import of mobile components.

The Indian government reduced import duty on mobile parts such as lenses, battery and back covers from 15% to 10%, by January-end. However, India continues to impose a 20% tax on chargers and circuit boards.

The IT Minister’s apprehensions are borne out by the data. In particular, Vietnam attracted many firms which were looking to reduce dependency on China. While China continues to dominate, Vietnam has eaten into its export share steadily over the years, taking over from South Korea as the second-biggest smartphone exporter.

Both India and Vietnam had less than 1% export share before 2010. By 2022, Vietnam’s share rose to 12%, while India ranked seventh with a little over 2.5% export share (Chart 1). While China continues to form the lion’s share by exporting half of the world’s smartphones in 2022, the consistently upward trend it witnessed before 2015 is not seen anymore. Hong Kong, UAE, the Czech Republic, the U.S. and South Korea are other players in the export market.

Chart 1 shows the country-wise share of smartphone exports.

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