China’s Vivo hits a snag after India delays export of phones

Indian authorities have stopped Vivo exporting 27,000 smartphones for more than a week in a setback to the Chinese group’s plan to ship devices from India to neighbouring markets.

Informed people said the smartphones, made by Vivo Communications Technology’s Indian unit, are being held up at the New Delhi airport by India’s revenue intelligence unit, a branch of the finance ministry, for an alleged misdeclaration of the device models and their value. The shipment is worth nearly $15m, according to one source.

The finance ministry and Vivo India did not respond to requests for comment. An industry lobby group called the government agency’s actions “unilateral and preposterous”.

“We request your kind and urgent intervention to stop this unfortunate course of action,” Pankaj Mohindroo, chair of India Cellular and Electronics Association, wrote in a December 2 letter to the top bureaucrat in India’s tech ministry.

“Such unwarranted actions by enforcement agencies will diffuse the drive and motivation to encourage electronics manufacturing and exports from India,” Mohindroo said.

The political chasm between India and China widened after the two nuclear powers clashed at a disputed Himalayan border in the summer of 2020.

New Delhi has also intensified scrutiny of Chinese companies operating in India including SAIC Motor’s MG Motor India and the local units of Xiaomi and ZTE.

Blocking Vivo’s shipments at the airport is likely to unnerve other Chinese smartphone players in India where a nationalistic government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is pushing them to ramp up exports and build local supply chains. That could threaten India’s ambitious target of exporting $120bn in electronics products by the end of March 2026.

Vivo exported its first batch of Indian-made smartphones in early November to markets such as Saudi Arabia and Thailand. But the latest snag could cloud Vivo’s future in the world’s second-biggest smartphone market, where the company is under scrutiny for alleged money laundering, a claim yet to be proved in court.

BLOCKING VIVO’S SHIPMENTS AT THE AIRPORT IS LIKELY TO UNNERVE OTHER CHINESE SMARTPHONE PLAYERS IN INDIA