Sony Stops Smartphone Manufacturing in Brazil, continues Imports from China & Thailand

The Japanese smartphone manufacturer Sony has decided to stop manufacturing in Brazil, the reason being the lack of fiscal incentives and the current financial crisis. The company’s marketing director Ana Peretti confirmed with the news portal G1 that the decision was also based on the present economic scenario in Brazil, and it is an attempt to make distribution more flexible. Sony launched the Xperia X and the Xperia XA earlier this month in Brazil.

They are part of the new strategy and are completely assembled in China and Thailand. Earlier, the company had its manufacturing plants by Foxconn and Arima, based in the countryside of São Paulo. Just over a year ago, the company announced a multimillion-dollar plan to expand in the Brazilian market. It had plans to invest $83 million in developing its presence in the country despite its economic instability at that time.

This decision was made after the company saw a 70% uplift in sales during 2014. The company was aiming to focus on smartphones with a higher price tag and grab the third position in terms of market shares behind Apple and Samsung. According to the recent reports, Sony was not even on the list of Top 10 smartphone manufacturing OEMs in the first quarter of 2016.

Another Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi also ceased it’s manufacturing activity in Brazil reason being the constant changes in the rules for manufacturing and taxation on e-commerce sales that was enforced. According to the company, it’s only going to be selling the Redmi 2 and the Redmi 2 Pro and no other devices will be launched locally. The company had been prioritizing the web as it’s only sales channel in Brazil, but the products will now be available to consumers in some of the large high street retailers.

Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, has signed a $5 billion deal to set up R&D and hi-tech manufacturing facilities in western India. Recently, ASUS also partnered with Foxconn to manufacture smartphones under “Make In India” campaign. Probably, Sony might also plan on the same lines, and set up new plants in India maybe in future to fight through current issues.

Sony announced it’s new Xperia X smartphone recently, and the entire line-up is ready for pre-orders in the US. It packs a Qualcomm MSM8956 Snapdragon 650 chipset with 3GB of RAM and a 5-inch display with FHD resolution. Check out our full detailed written review here to know how the device performs. Stay tuned for more updates from the company.

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