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 asFoxconn.
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 onThursdayhad 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.
