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NEW DELHI: India’s tight control over China’s electronics quality clearances slowed the import of Apple’s new iPhone model last month and delayed other products made by companies like Xiaomi, according to two industry sources.
Applications to the quality assurance agency, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), used to take 15 days to process, but some now take up to two months or more.
BIS began delaying approvals in August for imports of devices such as smartphones, smart watches and laptops made in China, as part of the fallout from deteriorating ties with China after a border standoff in June that left 20 Indian soldiers behind. dead.
Since the crash, India has tightened the rules for China’s investments and banned hundreds of Chinese mobile apps, including those from tech giants Tencent, Alibaba and ByteDance. It banned 43 more apps on Tuesday (Nov. 24).
When Apple’s new iPhone 12 was caught in delays, Apple India executives asked BIS to speed up its approval, giving assurances that the company would continue to expand its assembly operations in India, the two sources said.
It was unclear how long the iPhone 12 app was delayed and Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
The company has assembly operations in India, but newer models and the iPhone 12 are imported from China, where contract manufacturers make most of Apple’s devices.
As of Wednesday, 1,080 requests to the BIS for laptops, tablets and other devices were pending, with 669 of those waiting more than 20 days, according to the agency’s website.
These included apps for devices from the China-based factories of Wistron and Compal Electronics, and Hangzhou Hikvision, the data showed.
Some of the approval requests have been pending since September.
FILE PHOTO: People silhouette in front of the Xiaomi logo at a location in Beijing on May 10, 2016 (Photo: REUTERS / Kim Kyung-Hoon / File Photo)
CALLS FOR BOYCOTTS
Indian traders and Hindu nationalist groups have for months called for a boycott of imported goods from China due to the border clash, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to promote self-sufficiency and local production.
“While the BIS is delaying approvals for products such as smart watches, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is putting pressure on companies to manufacture these devices in India,” one of the sources said.
Under the BIS registration scheme, certain electronic products, whether imported or manufactured locally, must meet certain standards. After companies test their products in a certified laboratory, BIS approves the applications.
Wistron and Compal did not respond to requests for comment. Hikvision declined to comment.
BIS CEO Pramod Kumar Tiwari and India’s technology ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
Dispatch delays are the latest headache for tech companies whose supply chains were hit by the curbs of COVID-19, prompting some smartphone makers to turn to imports of even models made in India. Delays also occur during the Indian holiday season, when customers buy everything from mobile phones to gold to cars.
The BIS delays have also affected smartwatch imports for companies such as Xiaomi and Oppo, the two sources said.
Xiaomi and Oppo did not respond to requests for comment.
In July, India’s Ministry of Commerce also restricted inbound shipments of televisions by requiring importers to obtain a special license, a move one of the sources said continues to hurt companies like Xiaomi and Samsung Electronics.
Xiaomi was denied the special license to import approximately 30,000 units of televisions, while Samsung has faced similar import hurdles, the source said.
Samsung did not respond to a request for comment.
