Oppo’s New Facility with 50 mn Production Capacity to Become Operational in 2019

NEW DELHI: Chinese device maker Oppo having capacity of manufacturing 15 million products in a year in India, will be setting up a new facility in Greater Noida which would be able to produce 50 million devices in a year, the company said.

The current facility in Greater Noida houses nearly four thousand Indian employees. The new factory is expected to become operational next year, according to Jason, Oppo’s Quality In charge at the current factory.

"Our older plant in Noida was closed and shifted to Greater Noida. Herein we have established an SMT plant which is in production of the mainboards. As part of our commitment to the govt's make in India program, another facility is being constructed in industrial park and will be ready for operational use in 2019," Jason said.

As Xiaomi is targeting for 100% of its locally produced phones to have locally manufactured or assembled PCBs, Oppo is catching up with its own printed circuit boards (PCBs) unit at its existing factory in India. The PCBs are expected to be used for the company’s sub-brand aimed at taking on rival Xiaomi, which has become the top player in India smartphone market and is continuing its lead over other brands.

The India government had imposed a 10% duty on imports of populated printed circuit boards (PCBs), camera modules and connectors, making the imports of the components expensive thereby triggering foreign brands to take up local manufacturing or assembling of PCBs. ET had earlier reported citing industry sources that China’s Vivo may also have started PCB assembling in India.

In the beginning of 2015, Oppo had set up an R&D team for the next telecommunications standards and recruited experts for the same. As per the latest IDC’s report, Oppo had a 7.4% market share in the India smartphone market in the first quarter of this year, making it the no. 3 player after Xiaomi and Samsung which have 30.3% and 25.1% market shares respectively.

The device maker’s current facility in Greater Noida is manufacturing through SMT lines and takes up production of the company’s popular and latest phones including Oppo F7.

“We have been taking up production of Oppo F7 in this (current) facility and the batches manufactured here are out in the market,” said Jason.