Apple supplier Foxconn is reportedly set to invest 1 billion dollars in India to expand a factory in the southern part of the country, possibly its facility in Sriperumbudur (Chennai), where the Taiwanese contract manufacturer assembles Apple iPhones.
The scale of the expansion is not known yet although reports suggest that it is part of a gradual shift by Apple away from China as it is looking to steer away from the trade war between the Chinese and the US that’s currently disrupting operations for many American tech companies.
Expansion Plans
As per a Reuters report, sources with direct knowledge of the matter learned that “there’s a strong request from Apple to its clients to move part of the iPhone production out of China”.
Both Foxconn and Apple have declined to comment on the matter.
Foxconn had drawn expansion plans for India back in 2019 and said that it will move to the assembly of the most expensive models, such as devices in the flagship iPhone X family, potentially taking Apple’s business in India to a new level.
Currently, Foxconn is assembling the Apple iPhone XR at the facility which is located 50 kilometres west of Chennai. It’s expected that it will also start making the Apple iPhone SE (2020) models in India soon.
The report also says that the Taipei-headquartered unit will add approximately 6,000 jobs at the Sriperumbur plant.
Great News for Make In India
This is great news for the Make In India initiative as manufacturing more phones in India will bring the cost of the devices down but a huge margin as it will help Apple save up on imports.
Apple also assembles some of its models in Bengaluru via Taiwan’s Wistron Corp. Wistron also has expansion plans in India where it’s looking to make more Apple devices.
India is also looking to push electronics manufacturing in the country as it recently announced incentives plans worth $6.65 billion for five global smartphone makers to expand domestic production.
The current anti-China sentiment running in India has also pushed many manufacturers to make locally and reduce the import of Chinese products.
Samsung has already said that it will be making Samsung flagships for exports in India.
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