Flying high: Phone exports near FY23's tally in just 9 months of FY24

iPhones have contributed $7 bn to India's total $10.5 bn exports

Mobile device exports from India have hit $10.5 billion in the first nine months of the current financial year (FY24). With three more months to go, the final export tally for the full year is likely to be about $14-15 billion, according to industry body ICEA, much higher than the $11.1 billion recorded in FY23. And Apple’s iPhone exports have cornered the lion's share, contributing nearly $7 billion to the total.
 

Overall, mobile phone exports to the US, Europe, parts of Asia, and West Asia during the nine months are up 42 per cent compared to the corresponding period in the last financial year when they had clocked $7.3 billion. The highest monthly mobile export figure of $1.38 billion in FY24 came in December.
 

This is the first year that mobile exports have consistently logged $1 billion or more in six of the nine months since April. In FY23, mobile exports had racked up $1 billion only twice in the same period. The numbers coincide with the US Trade Representative Katherine Tai’s visit to India for the Trade Policy Dialogue that is currently underway in Delhi. Among other issues, the meeting will focus on exports and supply chain resilience between the two countries.

Source: Ministry of Commerce, industry data

 

This year, mobile exports reached a consistency first envisaged when the smartphone production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme was launched in 2020. The scheme saw the participation of Apple’s three vendors — Foxconn, Pegatron, and Wistron (whose India operations have now been taken over by the Tatas) — along with Samsung and Bharat FIH (another Foxconn firm). For most of these PLI firms, FY24 is the third year of the scheme.
 

iPhone exports contributed nearly 45 per cent to the total smartphone exports in FY23 but will likely contribute between 65 and 70 per cent at the end of FY24. Foxconn was responsible for the largest chunk of iPhone exports. Its outbound shipments grew nearly 250 per cent in the first nine months of FY24 over the corresponding period last year. Pegatron’s exports were also up more than 100 per cent over the corresponding period last year. 
 

ICEA, meanwhile, had released a study, cautioning that high tariffs on electronic components could slow down export growth over the next few years. It had called for reducing specific tariffs to increase India’s export competitiveness, build scale, and expand value addition.
 

In terms of the ranking of different commodity exports, smartphones with an export of $11.1 billion were ranked fifth last year.
 

This year, smartphone exports have shown a higher growth rate than the top five export categories. At this current rate of growth, smartphones will likely end up as the 4th largest export from India, if not the third, by the end of FY24.