Samsung is the South Korean conglomerate company that creates numerous products, including smartphones. In terms of sales and popularity, it's only one of the very few that can level Apple's iPhones.
In India's industrial city of Noida, the company has opened the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturing plant by production capacity.
The facility which occupies more than 129,000 sq. meters of space was inaugurated by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Moon Jae-in during their visit to the facility.
The factory aims to gradually double its annual smartphone production capacity in India from 67 million phones to 120 million in the next three years. The expansion also result in a twofold increase in the monthly production of refrigerators from 100,000 units to 200,000 units per month.
The factory is also expected to provide at least 1,000 more local jobs, and further strengthen Samsung's fight against rivals in the country.
The factory was made possible with the state government's Mega Plan, under which Samsung had announced an investment of more than $700 million in 2017 to expand the pre-existing Noida plant.
Indians favor low-end smartphones priced at $250 or less, given the low average annual income of its people. This is one main reason why Apple has struggled to gain market share in India, with most iPhone smartphones priced beyond $500.
But for the factory, it doesn't only manufacture low-end smartphones as it also create more expensive devices, including the flagship Samsung Galaxy series handset.
The strategy is to meet India's smartphone market demand which surpassed the U.S. as the world’s second-largest smartphone market after China.
Alongside the grand opening, Samsung also launched its ‘Make for the World’ initiative, which aims to export mobile handsets made in India to overseas markets. The move which also gives Samsung an advantage of reducing logistic costs to export its products to several Asian and European countries.
Apple has partnered with Taiwan based contract manufacturer Wistron to assemble iPhone 6S units in India in an attempt to lower costs for the phone, and Oppo that got permissions in Noida to establish a $320 million manufacturing unit.
Xiaomi which became India's biggest smartphone brand by shipments earlier in 2018, also has plans to ramp up production locally by opening three more factories in India.
And here, Samsung doesn't want to be left behind. Its factory that is considered the largest, would help the Korean giant in achieving its goal.
The factory is a win for India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship program that aims to lure investors to manufacture in the South Asian nation. Modi's government has imposed taxes on import of key smartphone components as part of his plan to make India the hub for electronics manufacturing to boost growth as well create new jobs.