Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海) is reportedly to work with Chinese smartphone vendor Gionee Communication Equipment Co Ltd (金立) to manufacture handsets in India by the middle of next month.
Hon Hai is to make smartphones for Gionee at a plant in Tamil Nadu, while another contract manufacturer, Dixson Technologies Pvt Ltd (India) is to make both smartphones and feature phones for Gionee, the Hong Kong-based Economic Times reported yesterday, citing Gionee chief executive officer in India, Arvind Vohra.
The newspaper also reported that Hon Hai was in talks with another Chinese smartphone vendor, Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀移動), to assemble smart devices at the same plant by November.
Oppo is also discussing the number of assembly lines with Hon Hai to cater for the demand in the Indian market, the report said, citing Oppo Mobile chief executive officer in India Mike Wang.
Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), declined to comment on the reports.
The news came after Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) told a press conference in India on Aug. 5 that the company plans to produce smartphones, precision machines, televisions, batteries, data centers, switch routers and storage solutions in the country.
At that time, Gou said the company could build as many as 12 manufacturing plants in India by 2020, as long as electricity supply and land issues were solved.
The Taiwanese contract maker started to manufacture phone handsets for Xiaomi Corp (小米) in July and for US-based InFocus Corp this month at its plant in Andhra Pradesh in southern India.
Hon Hai has also partnered with India’s second-largest mobile phone vendor, Micromax Informatics Ltd, to make handsets in the nation.
A source in Hon Hai told the Taipei Times that there are many ongoing projects in India and that the company can build a plant and install facilities quickly.
However, labor and land remain the biggest issues for the company when trying to establish manufacturing plants in the nation, the source said.
“Smartphone manufacturing requires well-trained workers to carry out delicate assembly processes. Such complicated tasks cannot be fully replaced by industrial automation,” the source said.
“However, India does not have sufficient well-trained workers at the moment, compared with China,” the source said.
The source said Hon Hai is to continue to adopt industrial automation and robots in its plants in India to raise production quality and shorten manufacturing time, but it is also to take the time to train staff operating the system and robots.
Hon Hai shares rose 0.12 percent to NT$84.7 in Taipei trading yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX, which gained 0.45 percent.
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