Indian iPhone production has begun, initially with test production before mass production begins next month. Wistron has also started recruiting 10,000 employees for its newest plant.
The move reflects another step forward in Apple’s more ambitious factory plans for the country …
The New Indian Express reports.
Wyston Infocomm Manufacturing (India) Pvt Ltd, one of the Taiwan-based, one of the major contract manufacturers of Apple devices, is expected to begin commercial production of the popular iPhone at its Narasapura plant in Kolar in the coming days. district. In preparation for this, the company has already started hiring activities […]
The manufacturing plant in Kolar is expected to generate about 10,000 jobs. According to Karnataka’s industrial policy, 70 percent of jobs should be given to local residents. From there, it is expected that at least 7,000 people from Karnataka will get jobs here. The company is thought to have recruited 2,000 people so far.
Narasapura is the home of Wistron’s third Indian iPhone plant, which began production on earlier models around the beginning of the year.
Wistron says its third Indian iPhone plant is now launching for full-scale production following a previously successful trial. Wistron was Apple’s first iPhone assembler in the country, and first started production with the iPhone SE – still sold there – before adding the iPhone 6S and iPhone 7
India’s interest in Apple as a factory hub has grown significantly since the first Foxconn plant back in 2016. The goal at that time was simply to make older and lower-end iPhone models for local sales. Apple’s primary production capabilities remained firmly central in China.
Things have changed quite dramatically since then. Apple’s increasingly uneasy relationship with China has highlighted the risks of being too dependent on one country for the vast majority of production.
The substantial tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Chinese-made products ensured diversification of the production of a much more urgent matter. Apple responded by asking suppliers to increase the price for moving 15-30% of production from China.
That seemed like an ambitious goal at the time, with one reportedly unsuccessful attempt to produce the current flagship models in the country. However, the importance of having iPhone production much more spread all over the world was underlined when the coronavirus hit China, shutting down iPhone production in the country.
The combination of all these factors meant that Apple revamped its efforts, with talk of shifting up to a fifth of China’s iPhone production to India in the next five years, with the bulk of production destined for export.
Up to $ 40 billion worth of iPhones could be made in India. Only $ 1.5 billion worth of phones are sold locally, which means the vast majority of production would be destined for other countries.
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