China's Xiaomi to build its second manufacturing unit in India

Manu Jain, vice-president and managing director of Xiaomi India and Jai Mani, product lead of Xiaomi India pose with Xiaomi Redmi 4A during its launch on March 20, 2017 in New Delhi, India. [Photo/VCG]

MUMBAI - Chinese tech giant Xiaomi on Monday announced plan for its second, but the very first exclusive manufacturing unit in India.

The new plant, partnered with Foxconn, is set in Sri City of the eastern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

"We will have a combined production capacity of one phone per second during operational hours", said Manu Jain, vice president and managing director of Xiaomi India at a press conference in New Delhi Monday.

Soon after its debute in India in July 2014, Xiaomi started building its first local manufacturing unit, which went live in August 2015. By March 2016, over 75 percent of its phones sold in India are made locally. The number will rise to "more than 95 percent" with the new plant, according to the company.

A new budget model, Redmi 4A, was also launched at the conference. The dual-SIM 4G-LTE device featuring Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor, 13MP rear camera and 3120mAh high capacity battery, is priced at 5999 rupee ($91.77).

Xiaomi had grabbed 10.7 percent share of Indian smartphone market by end of last December quarter, just behind Samsung, which took over 25 percent, according to a survey.