IPhone production in India will have new momentum as a third of Apple’s smartphone assemblers are establishing their first plant in the country. Foxconn and Wistron already have multiple assembly plants in India, and Pegatron is now said to be establishing its first plant there.
Apple has long tried to reduce its dependence on China by encouraging its suppliers to establish operations in other countries …
The U.S. trade war with China highlighted the vulnerability of having many of Apple’s manufacturing capabilities in one country, and this was underlined when the coronavirus outbreak saw many factories temporarily closed there, and others operating at greatly reduced capacity. .
Foxconn has factories in China, India, Thailand, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Singapore, and the Philippines. Wistron operates in China, Mexico, Brazil, Taiwan, and the Philippines. Pegatron has long been reported to be working on building production capacity in Indonesia, Vietnam and India, but now we have the first report of its plans in the latter country.
Bloomberg reports:
Apple’s assembly partner Pegatron is preparing its first plant in India, adding to a large influx of foreign technology investments in the country this year.
In June, the Indian government established a $ 6.6 billion plan to appeal to the world’s top smartphone manufacturers, offering financial incentives and ready-to-use manufacturing groups. Pegatron is now establishing a local subsidiary and joining Taiwanese electronics assemblers Foxconn Technology Group and Wistron Corp., which have already been manufacturing some iPhone phones in South India.
With a number of factories in China, Pegatron is the second largest iPhone assembler and depends on Apple for more than half of its business. Like his peers, he will settle in South India, according to a person familiar with his plans who asked not to be identified. Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai, and Wistron are seeking to expand their operations in the country, and Pegatron’s entry may be seen as a defensive move to protect their share of the iPhone manufacturing budget, according to Matthew Kanterman of Bloomberg Intelligence.
Initially, iPhone production in India was solely for products sold within the country. But a combination of Apple’s desire to be less dependent on China, and a combination of the Indian government’s carrot and stick initiatives to support its Made In India initiative have also seen production increase to make models for export.
In addition, more pre-assembly work is being done in India in response to import tariffs on components designed to encourage greater local manufacturing. We learned in February that Wistron is now assembling printed circuit boards in India. These were previously assembled in China and then shipped to India.
Photo: Zhou Junxiang / AP
FTC: We use automatic affiliate links that generate income. Plus.
Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:
