Sony Ericsson mulls India plant

Cellular handset maker Sony Ericsson on Wednesday said it was evaluating the possibilities of manufacturing in India but a final decision in this regard will be taken by its business partners to whom it has outsourced the production of mobile phones.

"India is a big market. We are evaluating the manufacturing option but we cannot take any final decision over this as we outsource most of our manufacturing to business partners like Flextronics and Beijing Mobile Corporation," Sudhin Mathur, GM, Sony Ericsson India said.

We have provided them information on the Indian market, now it should be their call", he added, after launching a slew of new cellular phones.

In fact, in case of BMC, which makes handsets for the company, Sony Ericsson itself owns 50 per cent stake and its other manufacturing partners are in Japan, Singapore, Sweden and Malaysia.

The company is a 50:50 joint venture between Ericsson of Sweden and Sony of Japan. If at all the company sets up a plant in India, it will cater to India and also export to others markets, he said.

India's GSM-based cellular phone addition stands at two million a month, a segment in which Sony Ericsson operates.

The world's number one mobile phone maker, Nokia has already announced its plan to manufacture handsets in India and is currently in the process of location finalisation.

LG has already set up a GSM handsets plant in Pune. Motorola has also evinced keen interest in similar plans.