A number of international companies are stepping in to take advantage of India's location as a promising export hub.
Foxconn eyes exports from India
The world′s largest contract manufacturer, Foxconn, plans to begin exports to the Middle East and African countries from India the end of this year.
The Taiwan-headquartered phone and electronics maker is stepping up an expansion of its manufacturing facility in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh, while scouting for more locations including Tirupati in the same state, besides states of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Delhi NCR.
Over the next year or so, Foxconn is aiming for its suppliers to set up base here so they can feed into the local production chain which it will create for exports, Indian media reports.
Foxconn, which makes iPhones for Apple out of China, is also reportedly set to accelerate discussions with several component suppliers over next couple of months, now that the Indian government has assured protection to local manufacturing through basic customs duty of 10 per cent and created a roadmap for local production of components coupled with tax incentives and benefits.
Foxconn has so far invested around $600 million in the India market.
Eicher Polaris plans exports
Eicher Polaris, which manufactures and markets personal utility vehicle 'Multix', said it plans to begin exporting the product to Nepal and Bangladesh this month.
Following the rising demand for Multix since its launch in June 2015, the company is also increasing its footprint in cities across India with a larger number of dealerships.
Pankaj Duney, Chief Executive and Managing Director of Eicher Polaris, said: “We have already shipped a few units to Nepal. The commercial sales in the Himalayan nation will begin from this week.
“We also have orders from Bangladesh. Shipping will start from the second week of this month.”
The company is also tapping into the central American market of Guatemala, Africa and Sri Lanka.Eicher Polaris is an equal joint venture set up in 2013 between Delhi-based Eicher Motors and US-based Polaris Industries Inc. The US firm also runs a separate company called Polaris India, which sells its all-terrain vehicles.
Isuzu Motors to export from Indian plant
Japan's Isuzu Motors plans to export from its unit in India by next year. The company has its plant at Sricity in Andhra Pradesh that has a capacity to make 50,000 vehicles a year.
Hitoshi Kono, deputy managing director, Isuzu Motors India, said: “By beginning of the next year we plan to begin exports from the Indian plant. It would start with exporting vehicles to countries like Egypt and other Middle East nations as well as Africa.”
Isuzu will begin with exporting commercial vehicles in the countries. The models will vary slightly depending on the market and regulatory conditions in the respective country.
“The company has kept the numbers low at present as it wants to concentrate on the quality. We cannot risk on the quality front due to which the numbers have been limited at present,” Kono said.
Apart from the commercial vehicles, the company hopes to gain a market for the pickup vehicle in the passenger segment.
