India expands handset manufacturing base
- India’s handset story widened this week as Larsen & Toubro began industrial electronics manufacturing in Coimbatore, while fresh trade data showed smartphones driving India’s export surge and anchoring a broader factory build-out. - L&T’s new LTEPS unit opened with two production lines and plans to expand across a 40-acre campus, as India’s electronics exports rose to $47.96 billion in FY26 and smartphone shipments jumped nearly 22%. - India now makes most phones sold at home, but local electronics value addition is still about 18%-20%, keeping the focus on components, design and testing. (businesstoday.in)
India’s phone-manufacturing boom is spreading beyond assembly lines into industrial electronics, components and factory infrastructure. (businesstoday.in) (bseindia.com) Larsen & Toubro said on April 24 it had started industrial electronics manufacturing at its Coimbatore campus in Tamil Nadu under a new unit called L&T Electronic Products & Systems, or LTEPS. The company said two manufacturing lines are already running. (bseindia.com) (cnbctv18.com) L&T said LTEPS will be headquartered in Bengaluru and will target power electronics, mobility, industrial robotics, automation, communication platforms and electronics systems design and manufacturing. It said the Coimbatore site can expand across a 40-acre zone into research, product development, sourcing, testing and validation. (bseindia.com) (cnbctv18.com) The timing lines up with a bigger export shift. India’s electronics exports rose 24% in FY26 to $47.96 billion from $38.56 billion a year earlier, and smartphone exports climbed nearly 22%, according to an official cited by The Economic Times. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) The government had already flagged a record in the prior year. Electronics and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on April 8, 2025 that smartphone exports crossed ₹2 lakh crore in FY25, up 54% from the previous fiscal. (ddnews.gov.in) Business Today reported that Apple’s contract manufacturers Foxconn, Pegatron and Tata Electronics are producing about 55 million iPhones in India, equal to about 14% of Apple’s global production. It said iPhones were India’s single most valuable export in 2025 at $23 billion, with smartphones at $30 billion overall. (businesstoday.in) That scale has not yet translated into deep local sourcing. Business Today said local value addition in electronics is about 15%-20%, while recent government-linked reporting put the figure at roughly 18%-20%, showing India still imports a large share of components and sub-assemblies. (businesstoday.in) (fortuneindia.com) (dqindia.com) Other manufacturers are adding capacity around that gap. TK Elevator began expanding its India factory this week, adding about 10,000 square meters with completion targeted for August 2027 to improve production, warehousing and logistics. (nbmcw.com) (firstconstructioncouncil.com) Rail equipment is moving the same way. On April 25, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw inaugurated BEML’s Aditya complex in Bengaluru, a facility built to produce the B-28 high-speed trainset, designed for 280 kilometers per hour with Integral Coach Factory. (aninews.in) (manufacturingtodayindia.com) India already makes nearly all smartphones sold domestically, and the Press Information Bureau said more than 300 mobile manufacturing units now operate in the country, up from two in 2014. The next test is whether more of the chips, boards, modules and production know-how move with them. (pib.gov.in) (businesstoday.in)
