Electronics firms seek growth in defence, aerospace sectors

Slowing of mobile-phone assembly boom prompts shift to higher-value industrial electronics

- Shouvik Das

Industry estimates point to a single-digit fall this calendar year from 152 million smartphones shipped last year.

(MINT)

India’s listed electronics manufacturers are under pressure to defend profitability as the mobile-phone assembly boom slows, prompting a shift towards higher-value industrial electronics.

Investors remained jittery through the last fiscal, driven by concerns that slowing consumer sentiment could weigh on the rapid growth that electronics manufacturing services (EMS) firms have delivered so far.

In an interview with Mint, Jasbir Singh Gujral, managing director of Syrma SGS Technology Ltd, India’s second-largest listed EMS firm, said, “We’re increasingly looking to capture a larger chunk of contracts from defence, aerospace and med-tech verticals, all of which represent opportunities for original design manufacturing, and also bring significantly higher margins. We’ve already started this transition, and we plan to do more of it this fiscal.