(Yicai Global) May 10 -- Chinese smartphone maker Transsion Holding said it is still producing and selling handsets in India despite the second wave of the coronavirus that is badly affecting the South Asian country.

Transsion has assessed the potential impact on the situation in India and is keeping a close eye on developments, the Shenzhen-based company said on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s public platform today in reply to investors’ questions on whether the second wave had affected the firm’s supply chain and sales in India and Pakistan.

With 5.1 percent of the local handset market, Transsion ranked sixth in India last year, according to its 2020 financial report. That report also said geopolitics could impact the firm’s procurement, production and sales abroad and the pandemic could hit overseas operations and full-year earnings, if not effectively contained.

Transsion has risk response plans in place to protect the health of employees and maintain normal operations, it said via the SSE platform. But it did not indicate how much the outbreak would impact performance.

Transsion entered India in the second half of 2016 and has two sales companies in the country. Due to the low gross profit margin on mobile phones in that market, its losses rose to CNY500 million (USD78 million) in 2018 from CNY32.4 million (USD5 million) in 2016.

Smartphones sales in India fell 2 percent last year to 150 million, with Xiaomi, Samsung Electronics, Vivo, Realme and Oppo ranking as the top five sellers, according to a report by data provider IDC.

The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in India stands at 22.4 million, with 246,116 deaths, according to figures the country’s health ministry published today.

Editor: Peter Thomas