Apple Inc. has hinted at plans to shift assembly of all
iPhones sold in the United States of America to India by as soon as next year
in a pivot away from China, according to the Financial Times.
The news platform reports that the proposed move by Apple
Inc. is due to untamed trade hostilities between the US and China.
Accordingly, the push will likely be further and faster than
investors are anticipating, with a goal to source the entirety of over 60
million iPhones sold in the U.S. annually from India by end-2026, the FT report
said, citing people familiar with the matter.
The target will entail doubling India’s iPhone output in
just over a year—a fraction of the time Apple spent developing its production
line in China, which took nearly two decades of heavy investment.
In the past years, Apple has become heavily reliant on China
as a manufacturing powerhouse, where the company manufactures several of its
products through third parties such as Foxconn.
However, the reliance leaves the company exposed to steep
trade tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump against the world’s
second-largest economy, China.
Apple was seen rushing shipments of iPhones from India
earlier in April, after President Trump kick-started a renewed trade war with
China.
While Trump did exempt electronics imports from China, he
clarified that this was a temporary move and that he will tariff electronics
imports separately.
Recall Trump slapped China with 145 percent tariffs;
however, in a tit-for-tat, China retaliated with a 125 percent levy. Concerns
over Apple’s exposure may result in as much as $700 billion in losses from the
tech giant’s market capital.
Apple has been steadily building its production capacity in
India through contract manufacturers Tata Electronics and Foxconn. These efforts
accelerated in recent years, especially after the company faced some production
disruptions in China due to civil unrest.
In a related development, the Financial Times on Thursday
had reported that Chinese factories slowed production in recent times and sent
workers home as US tariffs bit.
While the US hinted at trade talks with China, Beijing
announced otherwise.
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