New Delhi: Indian electronics exporters have been forced to look at alternative markets due to the US’s hiked tariff plans. Though finished electronics, including smartphones, have been exempted from the 25% tariffs, component manufacturers are a worried lot as their primary market has effectively closed.
Domestic Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) making power electronics, consumer products and PCB assemblies are a worried lot due to these arbitrary tariffs imposed on them. To hedge their bets, these companies are now looking at Europe, the Middle East and Africa as alternative destinations.
The revised tariffs will be imposed from August 26, and most OEMs are currently working to assess the full impact of these tariffs, Rajoo Goel, Secretary General, Electronic Industries Association of India (ELCINA), explained.
The long-running tariff war had, ironically, turned India into a net exporter of smartphones, even becoming the world’s second-largest smartphone exporter this year. Leading smartphone manufacturers, including Apple, Samsung and others, had set up operations in India as part of their ‘China+1’ policy, to reduce their dependence on China.
The government’s Make in India initiative has been pivotal in the rise of domestic mobile phone manufacturing, which has surpassed 2 billion units in total since the initiative was announced in 2014.
Though India’s smartphone shipments are expected to remain steady, domestic OEMs producing components like assembled photovoltaic cells (PVC) modules and other electronic instruments have seen their order values shrink in double digits, resulting in losses upwards of $1.6 billion.
