Smartphones now fourth largest export item from India, up 42% to $15.6 billion in FY24

Smartphones have become the fourth-largest export item from India, achieving 42 percent growth to reach $15.6 billion in FY24, as per a Business Standard report. 

The item has  moved up on spot in the export rankings, surpassing motor gasoline, compared to the previous year, it added. India began separately tracking smartphone export data in April 2022.

Notably, petroleum products continue to dominate India's top exports.

Key Export Destinations

Top destination where smartphones are being exported is the United States, which welcomed $5.6 billion worth of shipment — an increase of 158 percent year-on-year (YoY), the report said citing data from the Commerce Department.

Next on the list is the the United Arab Emirates or UAE which exported $2.6 billion worth of smartphones from India, followed by the Netherlands ($1.2 billion), and the UK ($1.1 billion), it added. 

The total value of mobile devices produced in India for both export and domestic markets in FY24 soared to ₹4.1 lakh crore ($49.16 billion), marking at least 17 percent increase YoY, the report added citing preliminary estimates by the Indian Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA).

Impact of the PLI Scheme

The report said that this growth jump could be attributed to the government’s successful production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for the sector. It added that PLI in the smartphones segment has pushed India to second position, only behind China, among the world's largest mobile phone manufacturing countries. 

This scheme has also played a crucial role in the China-Plus-One strategy, aimed at attracting companies manufacturing in China to shift operations to India due to geopolitical tensions between China and the US.

Eligible firms under the PLI scheme include Apple’s vendors—Foxconn, Wistron India (now Tata Electronics), and Pegatron—as well as Samsung. 

Apple has been the front-runner of this export growth, with the value of its outbound mobile device shipments expected to have surpassed ₹1.2 trillion ($14.39 billion) in FY24, a 33 percent increase from ₹90,000 crore in FY23, as per the report. 

Early estimates indicate that exports accounted for nearly 30 percent of the total output value in FY24, up from 25 percent in FY23, as per ICEA data.