Apple aims to make most of its iPhones sold in the US at factories in India by the end of 2026, and is speeding up those plans to navigate potentially higher tariffs in China, its main manufacturing base, a source told Reuters.
The US tech giant is holding urgent talks with contract manufacturers Foxconn and Tata to achieve that goal, the source said yesterday.
Apple sells more than 60 million iPhones in the US annually with roughly 80 per cent of them made in China currently.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has in recent years promoted India as a smartphone manufacturing hub, but higher duties on importing mobile phone parts compared to many other countries means it is still expensive for companies to produce in India.
For iPhones, manufacturing costs in India are 5-8pc higher than in China, with the difference rising to as much as 10pc in some cases, the source said.
Apple has already stepped up production in India to beat US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, shipping some 600 tonnes of iPhones worth $2 billion to the US in March. The shipments from India marked a record for both its contractors Tata and Foxconn, with the latter alone accounting for smartphones worth $1.3bn. In April, the US administration imposed 26pc duties on imports from India, much lower than the more than 100pc China was facing at the time. Washington has since paused most duties for three months, except for China.
The Financial Times first reported about Apple’s plan yesterday.
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