Foxconn set to begin mass production of iPhones in India this year

Foxconn Technology Group Chairman said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited him to India as his Taiwanese company plans its expansion in the country.

Foxconn Technology Group Chairman Terry Gou said the iPhone will go into mass production in India this year, a shift for the largest assembler of Apple Inc.’s handsets that has long concentrated production in

Gou said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited him to India as his Taiwanese company plans its expansion in the country. Apple has had older phones produced at a plant in Bangalore for several years, but now will expand manufacturing to more recent models. Bloomberg News reported this month that Foxconn is ready to start trial production of the latest iPhones in the country before it starts full-scale assembly at its factory outside the southern city of Chennai.

“In the future we will play a very important role in India’s smartphone industry,” Gou said at an event in Taiwan. “We have moved our production lines there.”

India has become the fastest-growing smartphone market in the world, while China stagnates and Apple loses share to local competitors such as Huawei Technologies Co. and Xiaomi Corp. Apple has been a minor player in India, in part because of its high prices, but local manufacturing would help the Cupertino, California-based company avoid import duties of 20 per cent.

“For Foxconn, the China market for iPhones is saturated, and labor costs are three times higher compared with India,” said Karn Chauhan, a Gurgaon-based analyst at Counterpoint Research. “India is still an emerging smartphone market, it has a lot of potential domestically and could serve as an export hub for the region.”

Gou also said on Monday that he plans to step back from daily operations to focus on broader strategy. The founder isn’t stepping down or relinquishing his chairmanship, said Louis Woo, special assistant to Gou.

It’s not yet clear how Apple’s steps into India will affect its China operations. China has been the company’s most important manufacturing base for years, home to Foxconn’s biggest facilities and hundreds of other partners.

Foxconn already has two assembly sites in the southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, where it makes devices for Xiaomi and Nokia. Locating more production in India would help diversify Apple and Foxconn’s manufacturing footprint away from China amid ongoing trade tensions with the US.

The Indian assembly line of Foxconn’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co would serve local and export markets by the time Apple announces its next iPhone models in September, people familiar with the matter have said.

Business Standard