- Monday, April 29, 2024
While China remains Apple’s primary iPhone manufacturing centre and its largest overseas market, the company is also facing declining revenues there.
By: Shubham Ghosh
IN a testament that Apple Inc. is intensifying its push to diversify beyond China, it doubled its iPhone assembly in India last fiscal year, reaching a production worth $14 billion (£11.2 billion), Bloomberg reported this week.
According to informed insiders who spoke to the news outlet on condition of anonymity, the American tech giant now makes nearly 14 per cent of its flagship devices in India, equating to roughly one in seven iPhones.
The expansion underscores Apple’s proactive approach in reducing its traditional dependence on China, especially amidst escalating geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Washington.
Read: For the first time in a calendar year, Apple tops in India smartphone revenues
While China remains Apple’s primary iPhone manufacturing centre and its largest overseas market, the company is also facing declining revenues there, influenced by the rise of formidable Chinese competitors such as Huawei Technologies Co. and increasingly stringent restrictions on foreign technology usage in the east Asian nation’s workplaces.
The substantial rise in manufacturing activity in India marks a significant achievement for the country’s Narendra Modi government which has tried to show its business-friendly face to the world. It has actively incentivised foreign companies, including Apple, to invest in high-end manufacturing within the country in a bid to make India a major manufacturing hub. The government asserts that the expansion in manufacturing has generated approximately 150,000 direct jobs at Apple’s suppliers.
Read: Apple supplier Foxconn to increase India investment to $550m
The revelation about Apple’s growing production in India will make the Modi administration happy ahead of the general elections beginning next week.
According to the sources, in the fiscal year ending March 2024, Foxconn Technology Group handled assembly for approximately 67 per cent of the iPhones manufactured in India, while Pegatron Corp. managed about 17 per cent. Both are Taiwan-based companies.
The remaining iPhones were produced at the plant of Wistron Corp, which is also headquartered in Taiwan, in the southern Karnataka state, acquired by the diversified Indian conglomerate Tata Group last year. The company has ambitious plans to establish one of the largest iPhone assembly plants in India.
Reuters reported earlier this week that Pegatron is in advanced talks to hand over control of its only iPhone manufacturing facility, located near Chennai in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, to the Tata Group. The Indian conglomerate is also building another plant in Hosur in Tamil Nadu, with Pegatron likely to emerge as its joint venture partner.
(With Reuters inputs)
