Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE is exploring the possibility of doing contract manufacturing in India as part of its cost-cutting measure.
The company is also slashing its workforce in the country by 30 per cent to ride over a flat telecom market.
Speaking to
ZTE has also combined its small R&D team in Bangalore with its services team. Post the cost-cutting measures, ZTE will have about 1,000 direct employees and another 500 outsourced jobs. About 500 jobs would get affected in India.
Liangjun said the employees who lose their jobs in India are being given an opportunity to work in ZTE’s other markets. ZTE’s India revenues have declined from 8 per cent of its global revenues a few years ago to 5 per cent now due to a depressed market.
“We are in talks with both Indian and international players for contract manufacturing. We will see what is cheaper for us,” Liangjun said, adding that the company has contract manufacturing partnerships in Europe and Brazil.
Plant in Gurgaon
ZTE has a plant in Gurgaon that manufacturers fixed line broadband equipment but may expand to wireless gear if it gets bigger projects.
“We will expand on our own or we will have partnerships for contract manufacturing. We will have the details in the next 2-3 months,” he said.
The Chinese firm is also looking to launch its fourth generation mobile phone in India this month. So far only, Huawei has launched a 4G phone. Liangjun declined to give any pricing details of the new ZTE device.
Globally, the company reported a net loss of $311.43 million in the third-quarter ending September 30, compared with a net profit of $47 million in the same period last year.