The initial success in smartphone manufacturing is gradually permeating into other electronic components and devices, with exports of laptops almost tripling in the April-August period of this financial year.
According to an analysis by the ministry of Commerce and Industry, exports of laptops to the top five markets increased to $ 102.6 million in April-August from $ 37 million in the same period of the previous year. The government’s support to the personal computer manufacturing through Production Linked Incentive (PLI) and other administrative steps have supported this surge, even though from a low base.
The biggest market for laptops, palmtops and handhelds is the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which bought $ 64 million worth of these devices in the first five months of the financial year. Last year during the same period exports were $ 29.7 million.
The second biggest buyer of computers from India, Russia increased its purchases to $ 20.4 million in April-August from just $ 4.4 million in the same period of last year. Other markets for PCs from India are Bangladesh ($ 7.7 million), Sri Lanka ($ 5.6 million) and US ($ 3.7 million).
Exports of printed circuit boards (PCBs) have gone up by 76% to $ 12.76 million in April-August. France is the biggest buyer of PCB’s from India at $ 3.54 million, Israel at $ 3.31 million and Italy at $ 1.64 million.
Within electronics, smartphones continued to reign supreme with exports of $ 5.1 billion in April-August to the top five markets, which is 59% more than what was achieved in the same period of last year. As expected the US was the biggest market with shipments of $ 2.88 billion, followed by Netherlands at $ 833 million, UK at $ 517 million, Italy ($ 449 million), Austria ($ 421 million)
Overall, electronic goods exports in September grew 7.9% to $ 2.07 billion dollars. In April-September the electronics exports grew 19.7% to $ 15.6 billion.