Xiaomi partners with Foxconn to et up its second manufacturing unit in India

Chinese handset vendor Xiaomi has partnered Foxconn to set up its second manufacturing unit in India at Sri City in Andhra Pradesh.

The new facility will be exclusive to Xiaomi, while the older one may see Foxconn making handsets for other vendors too.

The company said Xiaomi will be able to make "one phone per second in India".

Manu Jain, Head, Xiaomi India, said, "While I cannot disclose the exact capacity, I can tell you that we will be able to manufacture one phone per second whenever the lines are running. The two factories combined will provide employment to about 5,000 people, 90 per cent of which are women."

The move will help Xiaomi meet about 95 per cent of its demand in India from these two facilities.

However, it will continue to import accessories, ecosystem products and its premium product, Mi5 from China.

According to research firm IDC, Xiaomi had a 10.7 per cent share of the Indian market, putting the company just behind Samsung (over 25 per cent share) at the end of December quarter.

"The smartphone market in India will grow from 110 million units per annum to 200 million plus units, in 3-5 years, Jain added.