Phone, appliance plants to go festive a month early

Kolkata: Leading smartphone and consumer electronics companies are advancing festive season production by a month to July. They expect the market will boom during the crucial shopping period, surpassing last year’s record sales, as consumer sentiment improves, buoyed by greater vaccination coverage and no major layoffs or salary cuts this year due to the second Covid wave.

LG, Samsung, Godrej, Haier, Vivo, Realme, Apple, Panasonic and Xiaomi among others are scaling up production to full capacity from next month, especially that of premium products. Demand for these has been strong as the second wave has receded and companies see this trend persisting. Most have placed orders for components to ensure there is no shortage of products like last year.