Apple tripled India iPhone output to $7 billion in FY23: report
14 Apr 2023
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Apple Inc assembled iPhones valued more than $7 billion in India last fiscal year, tripling production in the world’s fastest-growing smartphone arena following an expansion beyond China, its main production base, say reports.
India now accounts for nearly 7 per cent of Apple’s iPhones production as the US company expands its cooperation with Foxconn Technology Group to Pegatron Corp, people familiar with the matter said. India accounted for an estimated 1 per cent of global iPhone market in 2021.
The Taiwanese companies that make most of the world’s iPhones from sprawling factories in China, have added assembly lines at a rapid pace over the past year. But, with chaos at Foxconn’s main “iPhone City” complex in Zhengzhou, Apple had to struggle for part supplies last year, which drove home vulnerabilities in Apple’s supply chain and forced it to cut output estimates.
For Apple, which was exploring ways to reduce its reliance on China as tensions between Washington and Beijing continue to escalate, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s offer of a spate of incentives to boost local manufacturing looked attractive for the US phonemaker.
Apple exported iPhones valued at $5 billion in the year ended March 2023, nearly four times as much as in the previous period, reports citing sources said. Apple will likely try to simultaneously manufacture the next iPhones in India as well as in China, sometime in the fall of 2023. And, if the aggressive expansion of its suppliers continues, Apple could assemble a quarter of all its iPhones in India by 2025.
Apple has been pushing suppliers Foxconn, Wistron Corp and Pegatron to ramp up India production. The trio, which together employ some 60,000 workers in India, make models ranging from the aging iPhone 11 to the latest iPhone 14 in the country.
Apple is at the heart of India’s ambitions to become a major manufacturing hub and alternative location to China. Apple’s production chain encompasses hundreds of companies across the world and employs millions, much of that now in China.
Apple will open its first two retail stores in India next week, one in the financial hub of Mumbai and another in the capital New Delhi. Chief executive Tim Cook is scheduled to fly in to personally inaugurate the two stores, underscoring the domestic market’s rising importance.
Cupertino, California-headquartered Apple has also sought changes in India’s labour laws as part of its effort to expand local production and create mega factories.
Its largest contract manufacturer, Foxconn, plans to invest about $700 million on a plant in southern India to make phone components and possibly iPhones.
