India May Capture 50% of Global Charger Market; Exports Can Touch $4.7 Billion: IAMAI

Smartphone chargers and Printed Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA) are two mobile components that could help India achieve its manufacturing targets if provided the right boost, the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) said on Thursday.

India has a high potential of becoming the leading global exporter of chargers worth $5 and above currently comprising 50 per cent of the overall market, if they are treated at par with mobile phones, said the report, titled "Production Linked Incentive for Smartphone Component Makers". The global market for chargers in 2025 is estimated to be $10 billion with $5 chargers comprising around 70 per cent of the market.

The Indian export of all chargers has risen from $143.05 million in 2016-17 to $366.78 million in 2019-20 (April-December) with an estimated compound annual growth rate of 40 per cent for the past three years. Looking ahead, with a five per cent production-linked incentive, overall production of chargers worth $5 billion and above in India is expected to touch $6.5 billion with the exports comprising $4.7 billion, said the report by the industry body.

"Apart from reducing the vulnerability of domestic manufacturing to geopolitical risks and biohazards, it will enable India to gain valuable forex on electronic devices and reduce the external vulnerability of the current account deficit," the report added. "According to industry inputs, a production-linked incentive for mobile chargers with FOB (Free On Board) of $5 or more alone will pull in immediate investments to the tune of $200 million by 2021," said the report.

The report also stressed the need to provide continued support for PCBA operations. The PCB and PCBA industry is highly fragmented, with the bulk of the manufacturers based out of Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, China and the US. Of these, China accounted for 48.01 per cent of the global output volume of PCB and PCBA in 2017.

In order to shift the PCB manufacturing to India, India should continue to incentivise PCBA at 5 per cent, as it can increase PCBA production to over $3 billion for the large-scale export-centric manufacturers in the country, IAMAI said. These two verticals with the continued support can work as an attractive segment for attracting investments, creating 25,000 new jobs and reducing the import bill by increased local value addition, the industry body added.