A recent event revealed that Apple Inc. assembled more than $7 billion of iPhones in India last fiscal year.
The iPhone maker seems to be tripling production in the world’s fastest-growing smartphone arena after accelerating a move beyond China.
A Significant Leap For India
With the expanding partnership from Foxconn Technology Group to Pegatron Corp, the US company now makes almost 7% of its iPhones in India, according to sources.
It appears to be a significant leap for India as it accounted for an estimated 1% of the world’s iPhones in 2021.
Amidst the increasing tensions between Washington and Beijing, Apple is exploring ways to reduce its reliance on China.
Apple is longtime partners with China who make most of the world’s iPhones from sprawling factories in China.
It has also added assembly lines at a rapid pace over the past year, said the sources.
Manufacturing Units In India
During the chaos at Foxconn’s main “iPhone City” complex in Zhengzhou last year, the world’s most valuable company struggled as it drove home vulnerabilities in Apple’s supply chain and forced it to cut output estimates.
Interestingly, during the same time, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has dished out a spate of incentives to boost local manufacturing.
In the meantime, Apple shares rose 1.1% at 9:31 a.m. in New York.
Further, the sources said that Apple exported $5 billion of iPhones in the year ended March 2023 of the total production which is nearly four times as much as the previous period.
Apple is planning to manufacture the next iPhones in India at the same time as in China, sometime in the fall of 2023.
If it happens then it will be the first time that iPhone assembly begins concurrently in the two countries.
Similarly, if the aggressive expansion of its suppliers continues, Apple could assemble a quarter of all its iPhones in India by 2025.
So far, the US representative company declined to comment.
Apple had recognized the need to diversify its supply chain even before last year’s iPhone city flareup.
As a result it successfully lobbied for incentives in India and pushed suppliers Foxconn, Wistron Corp. and Pegatron to ramp up locally.
The trio together employed more than 60,000 workers in India which make models ranging from the aging iPhone 11 to the latest iPhone 14 in the country.
This has helped in placing Apple at the heart of India’s ambitions to become a major manufacturing hub and alternative location to China.
