Apple, Xiaomi Shipments From China Getting Delayed; Taking 300% More Time To Get Approvals

Apple and Xiaomi have a new headache in the form of clearance delays for China-made products imposed by The Bureau of Indian Standards(BIS), the quality control agency, in the name of tighter quality control.

This coming amid the Indian festive season, when big ticket purchases like mobile phones to cars are made, is particularly a force to reckon with.

BIS and Clearance Delays :-

Due to this Apple’s new iPhone and products by Xiaomi are bearing the brunt as their products are being held up and the approvals are being delayed. This is due to a fallout between the two nations. Post the fallout, India has tightened the rules of investments from China as well as banned hundreds of Chinese apps, which include tech giants Tencent, AliBaba and ByteDance. Banning 43 apps furthermore this Tuesday.

The approval process which usually took 15 days to be processed, now takes upto two months and in some cases longer. This is evident for various electronic goods from smartphones to smartwatches to laptops.

As of Wednesday, out of 1080 applications for laptops, tablets and other electronic devices, 669 were pending for over 20 days. These applications were from China based factories Hangzhou Hikvision and Wistron and Compal Electronics. Some of them are said to be pending since September

Boycotts & Impetus to Local :-

While Prime Minister Modi promotes self-reliance, local production and being “Vocal for Local”, Indian traders as well as the Hindu Nationalist groups are advocating the boycott of imported products from China because of the border clash.

This is evident from the delayed approvals for smartwatches by BIS and the push by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to various companies to produce indigenously.

While the iPhone 12 is caught in delays, Apple India is requesting BIS for speedy and timey approvals, along with giving assurances that the company would expand its assembly operations in India.

Previously in July, the Trade ministry imposed restrictions on shipments of TV’s by asking importers to get a special licence, a move believed to disincentivize companies like Xiaomi and Samsung Electronics.

The delays have hit smartwatch imports from Xiaomi and Oppo.

Wistron and Compal did not respond to the requests for comment. Hikvision declined to comment. BIS Director, Tech Ministry did not respond to the requests for comment. Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo did not respond to the requests for comment.