Sunny Opotech, an arm of Zhejiang (China)-based Sunny Optical Technology, has signed an agreement with Apple to set up a $300-million facility in India.

“We are going to roll out the project in different phases till 2026. We have not decided on where to locate this facility. We are going to firm up our plans soon. It will cater to both mobile phones and laptops and computers of Apple,” Welly Liu, President of Sunny Opotech India, told businessline.

Revenue target

He said the agreement with Apple will propel the revenues from India to $3-4 billion from the present level of $300 million. The company is already producing camera modules for Android phones at its Tirupati facility in partnership with Celkon (Seven Hills) for the last three years. Sources said the association will continue for the project for Apple.

“Camera modules for Apple are of high value. The new investment will help the overall strategy to increase the revenues of the camera module business unit (BU) to $10 billion by 2026 from the present $3.5 billion,” he said.

Pegging the global mobile camera module business at $30 billion, he said Apple contributes about $15-18 billion. “Of the $10-billion revenue target for our BU, the contribution from Apple would be about $3 billion,” he said.

The new facility, which will exclusively manufacture Apple products, will commence work in 2024. It will start production after the initial test run of the products in China. “The project with Apple follows a long process that takes about 1-2 years before we go for mass production. We expect mass production in China in 2024. India will follow suit after going for some quality testing process,” he said.

The Chinese company, with revenues of $4.5 billion, is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It designs and manufactures camera modules for mobile phone, automobile industry, security, robots and industrial detection businesses. “We are scouting for an ideal location to establish the new facility,” he said.

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