Gurgaon-based company Adit Infratel to begin battery manufacturing after favourable Budget proposals

Amongst the first moves for making mobile phone components locally, Gurgaon-based Adit Infratel has started making lithium polymer embedded batteries in Manesar, with an initial investment of Rs. 25 crore, accelerating the government's Make in India program.

The company which has been a distributor for Panasonic batteries in India said recently that it will begin producing 60,000 mobile batteries and 20,000 mobile chargers per day from April first week, and is already talking to handset makers in India for local supplies.

'The Budget recommendations with the new duty structures were good for us,' said Vikram Kalia, Director Sales & Marketing, Adit Infratel. 'we're already talking to most of the manuafacturers,' he added.

To promote domestic value addition in mobile handsets, the government has annulled duties on components and parts used in making chargers, adapter, battery, wires headsets, speakers, in the 2016-17 Union Budget. A duty advantage of 10.5% has been extended to these products, but if imported, they will attract a total of 29.44% duty, making the proposition highly expensive.

'We hope to significantly increase our topline to Rs 335 crs over the next four years by leveraging our existing OEM relationships with leading brands and also forging new ties,' he added.

The 10,000 sq ft factory will allow the company to augment our local manufacturing capacity to cater to the exploding demand for smartphones and also produce more efficiently, thanks to greater control over the entire chain.

The company has an existing plant in Parwanoo, Himachal Pradesh where it makes at 35,000 mobile batteries, 25,000 mobile chargers and 4,000 power banks per day, mostly for after sales consumption.

It is already holding talks with Chinese smartphone makers for supplying them peripherals that presently get supplies from China. It is also talking to come Chinese suppliers for joint investment in India or for taking component level supplies for making batteries and other products.

'We hope to close some supply partnerships by March end, or April,' Kalia said.

ET