A Chinese employee at Xiaomi's Mi Home in Shanghai Photo: IC

With India sees a steady increase in the number of novel coronavirus infections, surpassing the 500 mark now, some Chinese smartphone makers have temporarily closed their plants in the country following government lockdowns to contain the spread of the virus.

Brands including OPPO, Vivo and Realme have shut their factories pending further notice from the state government of Uttar Pradesh, which announced on Sunday that 15 of its districts would be locked down until Wednesday. The vendors' plants are located in Greater Noida, a suburban city in Uttar Pradesh.

"Operations in our Greater Noida factory have been suspended as per the directive from the government. Additionally, all OPPO India employees have been advised to work from home until further notice," OPPO said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Tuesday. A travel advisory is in place and traveling interstate has been postponed for all employees.

Vivo's India office has mandated 100 percent of its employees to work from home, according to a statement Vivo India sent to the Global Times.

"Restriction on both international and domestic travel, thermal screening of all individuals at Vivo premises, as well as staggered work from home for teams across functions have been implemented," Vivo India said.

Realme, a Chinese smartphone brand that has operations in the Indian market, said its factories are suspended until further notice.

"Realme India has suspended production of its manufacturing operations in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh since Saturday. While this will temporarily affect our inventory and supply in the market for some time, the safety of our workforce is of paramount importance to us," Realme said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Tuesday. 

Chinese smartphone vendors have had a huge share in India's market in recent years. According to Counterpoint Research, Xiaomi took the lead with a 29 percent market share in India in 2019, followed by South Korea-based Samsung. The third to fifth rankings were held by Vivo, Realme and OPPO.

Corporate offices, warehouses, service centers, Mi Home facilities and factories will follow lockdown orders of the state and union territories, Manu Jain, managing director of Xiaomi India, said Monday in an open letter.

Xiaomi's Mi Home stores are closed and won't offer delivery services, a PR of Xiaomi India told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Xiaomi, which entered India in 2014, has seven plants in the form of partnerships - two in the state of Tamil Nadu, four in Andhra Pradesh and one in Uttar Pradesh. These facilities are expected to remain closed until month end under state directives. 

"The vendors' shutdowns could deal a heavy blow to the Indian phone and electronics manufacturing industry, given the increasing uncertainty of the shutdown period amid the epidemic," an India-based industry insider, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Phone production is important to the "Make in India" initiative that contributes 8 percent of India's GDP. Phone shipments could contract this year for the first time, and major Chinese vendors would feel the chill, the insider said.

Data from IDC showed that India's smartphone shipments rose 8 percent year-on-year in 2019 to 152.5 million units. India became the No.2 market in 2019 after China but ahead of the US.

Sun Yanbiao, head of Shenzhen-based research firm N1mobile, told the Global Times on Tuesday that compared with the coronavirus' impact on production, sales would be under more pressure since the epidemic will hurt consumers' ability to spend. 

"Given the experience of resuming production in the vendors' factories in China amid the epidemic, I think the model can be effectively copied to India, but that's less worrisome than the consumption end," Sun said, and mounting inventories would be more devastating to vendors.


Newspaper headline: Chinese smartphone firms shut India factories amid COVID-19 lockdowns