Apple to manufacture iPhones at plant in India

Govt allocates 300 acres of land for factory with Foxconn investing $700 million

BENGALURU:

Apple Inc’s iPhones will soon be assembled at another site in the southern Indian state of Karnataka and 300 acres have been set aside to set up a factory, the state government said on Friday.

Bloomberg News had earlier reported that Apple partner Foxconn Technology Group planned to invest about $700 million in the Karnataka site to ramp up local production.

The state’s investment promotion division said in a tweet that the move would generate 100,000 employment in the next 10 years.

Apple and Foxconn did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for a comment on the Bloomberg report.

Currently, iPhones are assembled in India by at least three of Apple’s global suppliers – Foxconn and Pegatron in Tamil Nadu, and Wistron in Karnataka.

Apple has shifted production away from China after the country’s strict Covid-related restrictions disrupted the manufacturing of new iPhones and other devices in the country. The decision was also made to avoid a big hit to its business from tensions between Beijing and Washington.

In January, India’s trade minister said that Apple, which began iPhone assembly in the country in 2017 through Wistron Corp and later Foxconn, wants India to account for up to 25% of its production from about 5-7% currently.

On Wednesday, Taiwanese Apple Inc supplier Foxlink said that it is working hard to resume production following a fire at a plant in southern India that halted operations at the maker of iPhone charging cables, sending its stock price down.

The factory is located in the Chittoor district of India’s Andhra Pradesh state and is unlikely to resume full operations for two months, raising supply chain concerns for the US tech giant.

Foxlink was engulfed in a massive fire on Monday that led part of the building to collapse, but there were no casualties.

Meanwhile, Apple Inc rose 2.7% after Morgan Stanley said the stock could rally more than 20% this year on potential hardware subscription.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2023.

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