Samsung to open World’s Biggest Mobile Factory in India, inauguration today: Here’s what we know

Samsung to open World’s Largest mobile factory in Noida  

Samsung’s new 35-acre facility in Sector 81, Noida, Uttar Pradesh will be one of the biggest in the world. This is in addition to Samsung’s existing manufacturing facility in Noida. To be clear, Samsung has had manufacturing in India for over two decades. The company had first set up the plant in 1997 for manufacturing television sets in India. The current mobile phone manufacturing plant was introduced back in 2005, though it only started manufacturing phones in 2007.

Also read: Samsung factory to be inaugurated by PM Modi today will be one of world’s largest with 120 million phones a year

In June last year, Samsung had announced Rs 4,915 crore investment for the Noida plant. Samsung also manufactures refrigerators, television panels, smartphones, feature phones, etc at this particular factory. According to reports, the capacity of the plant will double from 67 million to 120 million phones for the year, making it one of the world’s largest. Keep in mind that the 120 million means feature phones as well. It also looks like the capacity for manufacturing refrigerators will also be increased with the new plant.

In India, the smartphone market stood at 127 million for the year in terms of shipments for 2017, according to data from research firm IDC. The total mobile phone market in India for 2017 was around 288 million, according to IDC data with 164 million shipments of feature phones in total.

Samsung is one of the top feature phone manufacturers in India with 20.5 per cent of market share at the end of 2017, according to IDC. In smartphones, Samsung had a 24.7 per cent share over all of 2017, though it has lost in individual quarters to Chinese rival Xiaomi, which has grown in India.

Samsung’s World Largest Mobile factory: What time will it be inaugurated? 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will be landing together at a quickly prepared helipad adjacent to the factory, according to IANS. Officially the event will start at around 5.30 pm in the evening. The Delhi-Noida-Direct (DND) flyover will be blocked from 4 pm to 5.30 pm on account of the same.

How many mobile manufacturing plants does Samsung have in India?

Samsung has two manufacturing plants in India. There’s the one in Sector 81 in Noida, while the second is in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu. Samsung’s Noida plant also has a Research and Development Centre, and there’s is a design centre as well. In total over 70,000 people are employed by the plant in Noida.

Samsung overall has five R&D centres in India. There are two in Bengaluru, one in Pune, one in Delhi and one in Noida. Many of the software products designed for Samsung’s smartphones in India are developed by these R&D teams.

When it comes to mobile manufacturing, Samsung is manufacturing over 10 per cent of its overall production in India, and aims to take it to 50 per cent in the next three years, according to IANS. HC Hong, President and CEO, Samsung India, told the news agency that a bigger manufacturing plant will help them cater to the growing demand in India.