Samsung aims to near double phone production India by 2026

Samsung is aiming to near double its smartphone production capacity in India by 2026, TheElec has learned.

According to the company’s reorganization plan obtained and seen by TheElec, this is part of Samsung plan to reduce how much each of its smartphone production sites in seven countries to below 30% of the total.

The company had dubbed as part of its long-term aim of risk distribution.

Vietnam’s capacity will be dropped to 163 million units per year by 2026.

Over the same time period, India’s will be expanded from its current capacity of 60 million units to 108 million units.

As Samsung operates two smartphone factories in Vietnam, this means its single factory in India will be become its largest around 2024, even before 2026 due to the gradual shift.

As of last year, the company’s annual smartphone production capacity for each country where it has factories were: 182 million units in Vietnam, 60 million units in India, 9 million in Indonesia and 28.8 million units in Brazil. Their capacities are likely to remain level or similar this year.

Samsung states in its plan that it plans to adjust this sequentially by 2026 so that each of its major production sites accounts for less than 30% of its annual total.

By 2026, Vietnam will be adjusted to 163 million units, India to 108 million units, Indonesia to 53 million units. Brazil’s is to remain the same at 28.8 million units.

After the change, the two factories at Vietnam will account for around 20% of its total production. India, Indonesia and Brazil will each account for 25%, 14% and 6%, respectively.

Sources told TheElec that the reorganization is also being done as Samsung wants to focus more on the Indian market, the second largest for smartphones in the world after China.

Meanwhile, Samsung’s total annual production capacity is 20% higher than the actual number of phones it plans to produce.

This additional capacity is added in case of unforeseen events which may affect production.