Coronavirus – India’s Smartphone Industry Which Banks On Chinese Components, Sub-Assemblies Feel The Heat

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The Indian smartphone industry, which relies heavily on China for components and sub-assemblies, has started feeling the impact of supply disruptions in certain product categories due to the coronavirus outbreak, market watchers said .

According to a report by news agency PTI, The industry is keeping a close watch to see if shuttered factories in China reopen in the coming days and supplies resume sometime this week.

“Yes, the industry is already feeling the impact and some products and models have been impacted.

“It is still early to draw any conclusion as select factories are slated to resume production in a phased manner,” India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) chairman Pankaj Mohindroo told PTI.

He declined to comment on the specifics, but added, “we are in a wait-and-watch mode this entire week.”

Industry watchers, however, admitted that the situation on the ground is bad, as the supply lines for smartphones predominantly come from China.

At the same time, they said the market itself is slow and demand sluggish.

When contacted, realme in an e-mailed response said its supply chain has not been affected for the time being and that “there has been no significant effect in stocks/production for realme in India” during the said period.

“All realme smartphones sold in India are manufactured in India, with more than 7500 local workforce and more than 50 per cent local supplies…Due to objective reasons such as logistics obstruction and delay in resumption of work caused by the epidemic, some supplies from China might face slight delays but no major impact as of now is there for our future product plans,” it added.

The company said it is closely monitoring the impact on the smartphone industry.

E-mail queries sent to Xiaomi, Oppo, vivo and POCO on the impact on supplies went unanswered.