From Bloomberg, April 9:
- It now assembles about 1 in 7 of its iPhones from India
- That ramp-up suggests an accelerating shift from China
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Apple Inc. assembled $14 billion of iPhones in India last fiscal year, doubling production in a sign it’s accelerating a push to diversify beyond China.
The US tech giant now makes as much as 14% or about 1 in 7 of its marquee devices from India, people familiar with the matter said, declining to be named as the information isn’t public.
The ramp-up suggests Apple is accelerating efforts to cut its longstanding reliance on China as geopolitical tensions mount. The country remains its largest iPhone-making hub and biggest overseas market. But that’s also where Apple’s revenues are plunging, hit by ascendant rivals such as Huawei Technologies Co. and an expanding ban on the use of foreign technology in the workplace.
The big jump in Indian activity marks a win for the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which has plied foreign firms including Apple with financial incentives to try and attract high-end manufacturing. The government says the growth in manufacturing has created 150,000 direct jobs at Apple’s suppliers.
Government policies “have helped companies such as Apple to expand production in India,” technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told Bloomberg News after the report. “We will build on this momentum and are committed to a stable and transparent policy regime that’ll turn India into a globally trusted manufacturing hub.”
Foxconn Technology Group assembled nearly 67% and Pegatron Corp. about 17% of the India-made iPhones in the fiscal year ended March 2024, according to the people. The remaining iPhones were made in Wistron Corp.’s plant in southern Karnataka state, which the salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group took over last year. Tata plans to build one of the country’s biggest iPhone assembly plants.
The dollar figure refers to the devices’ estimated value as they leave the factory, rather than the retail price tags. Representatives for Apple declined to comment.
What Bloomberg Intelligence Says
News that Apple Inc. doubled its production of iPhones in India in the year ended March highlights a powerful trend — India is increasingly becoming a manufacturing base of choice for multinationals looking to diversify away from China. As our analysis has shown, a buildup of its manufacturing capacity and integration into global supply chains are likely to drive growth in the years ahead — and potentially help India take over from China as the world’s strongest growth engine.- Abhishek Gupta, economist...
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