Mobile exports grow 74% in May to record second-highest figures ever

Exports of mobile phones from India in May clocked more than $3.09 billion, increasing by over 74 per cent over the same month last year, when they had hit $1.78 billion, according to the data provided by the industry to the government.

 

The figure in May is the second-highest ever. The peak was $3.1 billion in March, when Apple exported more phones to the United States and built inventories to avoid penal tariffs in the North American country from April.

 

As a result, in the first two months (April and May) of 2025-26 (FY26), exports of mobile phones crossed $5.5 billion, a growth rate of 41 per cent over the same months in FY25.  

 

Apple’s three vendors together remain the most significant contributors to this continued increase of mobile exports.

 

Exports consistently hit $2 billion or more every month starting from October last year.

 

In April, exports touched $2.4 billion, a full 62 per cent higher than that in the same month last year.  

 

Exports increased rapidly each year since the announcement of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme started. They reached $11.1 billion in FY23, $15.6 billion in FY24, and $24.1 billion in FY25, according to industry figures.

 

This expansion has propelled electronics exports from India to new heights.

 

Electronics as an export category ended FY25 as the third-largest, behind engineering goods and petroleum.

 

This year in the first two months, electronics has been the fastest-growing export category -- increasing 47.2 per cent to reach $8.26 billion -- among India’s top 30 such baskets.

 

Of the electronics exports, mobiles constituted 59 per cent in the first two months of FY25. This year that climbed to 67 per cent when the numbers for April and May are combined.

 

After the Nokia factory closed down, mobile phone exports ranked 167th among India’s outbound-shipment items.

 

India became nearly 78 per cent import-dependent by early 2014.

 

At this stage, the government intervened and by 2017 it announced the Phased Manufacturing Programme scheme.

 

By 2023, 99.2 per cent of all mobile phones sold in India were made in the country.

 

Meanwhile, sensing an opportunity to invite global supply chains such as Samsung and Apple to expand capacity, the government introduced the PLI scheme in 2020. While it was introduced in 13 other sectors, it was the smartphone PLI that aimed at addressing India’s cost disability vis-a-vis China, and it proved to be the most successful.

 

While India’s growth in mobiles is remarkable, it stands behind China and Vietnam, whose governments over the past 15 years have lowered costs and provided a competitive environment for global value chains to manufacture electronic products in general and mobiles in particular, primarily aimed at export.