Building on the government’s revamped production-linked incentive (PLI) program for IT hardware, the $15 billion Taiwanese company, which previously manufactured some of its products at a factory in Noida, is now working on a plan to aggressively ramp up production to expand. in India. It expects demand to grow rapidly here, while China, the US and key Western markets are witnessing a slowdown.
“Asus is one of the fastest growing notebook brands in India and we will now expand our product offering and business operations here in line with the company’s growing size and market potential,” Peter Changmanaging director of Asus’ Asia Pacific System Business Unit, told TOI here.
The company currently sources almost 80% of its production from China and the rest through Taiwan, Brazil, Europe and Indonesia. “As we expand in India in line with the PLI plan, this country could become the second or even third largest manufacturing location for us globally in the coming years.”
Asus, which originally entered India through gaming laptops, has expanded its product range and currently has an 18% share of the consumer notebook sector, while it has around 5% share of commercial notebooks and consumer desktops. “We were originally present through online channels, but are now expanding offline as well.”
Chang said the company is encouraged by the updated PLI program for IT hardware, the investment and localization milestones mandated therein. “We took the time to understand the policy and how we could comply with its provisions after it was announced. We now feel comfortable with the plan, which has prompted us to ramp up our local production plans .”
The company is looking for local suppliers for key components such as: PCB (circuit board), memory units and chassis. “We need to find suppliers here and are also talking to our suppliers in China, Taiwan and Korea.”
The Indian computer market saw sales of about 10 to 11 million units last year, and Chang said it has the potential to gain scale in China, which currently sells about 25 to 30 million units. “While India is a growing market, the Chinese market has declined significantly.” Chang said there are no immediate plans to export from India as most of the production will be for local use. “There is sufficient demand here, which must first be met. Only then can we think about exports.”
