Made in India' Samsung mobile handsets next year

NEW DELHI: Samsung will open a mobile handset manufacturing facility in India early next year, the company announced here today.

The unit to be located at Manesar in Gurgaon, Haryana would be the fourth overseas manufacturing unit in the world after China, Brazil and Mexico.

Director Telecom, Samsung India, H.C. Ryu said that Samsung would make an investment of $15 Million for the facility. The first phase will see an investment of $10 million.

“We plan to commence production at the facility by the end of the first quarter of 2006. The plan will have an initial capacity of producing 1 million units per annum which will be further increased to 20 million units per annum by 2010,” Ryu said.

The proposed facility will be the company's manufacturing hub for South West Asia.

“It will help us to respond to the market and the needs of Indian customers and go in for greater product customization and be in a position to fully tap the potential of this fast growing mobile market in India,” Ryu added.

President and CEO, Samsung South West Asia, Suk Ha Oh said that they would initially manufacture GSM handsets at the facility.

Ryu said that the handsets produced in India would also be made available in the markets of Middle East countries, South East Asia and South West Asia. The company would customize these models with the help of Samsung India Software Operations Unit (SISO), Samsung's R&D centre located at Bangalore.

Speaking about manufacturing handsets components in India, Ryu said that they would import 100 percent components for assembling in the unit. The company now does not look at manufacturing components with local vendors in India.

The facility would initially manufacture two models for the Indian market, which would target mid-end customers. However, Ryu denied revealing the handset models.

Samsung also launched three new handsets today. The three handsets are SGH-N170, SGH-X660 and X 700 priced at Rs.3199, Rs. 8599 and Rs. 14, 699 respectively.

With the launch of these three new handsets, Samsung has a range of 18 handsets in the Indian market.