Chinese techies' exit likely to hamper India's smartphone export success

This comes after Beijing verbally asked regulatory authorities and local governments to curb technology transfers and movement of technicians to other countries

Reports of China recalling its engineers from Foxconn’s India plant have raised fears about its impact on the production and export capacity of made-in-India smartphones. This comes after Beijing asked authorities to curb the transfer of technology and technicians to other countries in a bid to prevent firms from shifting their manufacturing base out of China. India’s smartphone exports had touched $24.13 billion in FY25 — 55 per cent higher than FY24.

 

 

Share of smartphone shipments to the US based on the country of origin (volume in %)  

In terms of volume, 26 per cent of smartphones in the US had India as their country of origin in the first quarter of CY2025, up from 16 per cent last year.  

 

 

Country-wise share in value of smartphone imports by the US (in %)  

India’s share in US’ smartphone imports rose from 1.77 per cent in 2022 to 13.58 per cent in 2024. Its share surged to 37.32 per cent in first four months of 2025

     

 

India’s smartphone exports (in %) 

Nearly 44 per cent of India’s smartphone exports in FY25 were shipped to the US. Smartphones became one of India’s largest exported commodities last year, with their share in total exports more than doubling from 2.43 per cent in FY23 to 5.52 per cent in FY25.