Apple Aiming To Increase India Production Share To Up To 25%: Piyush Goyal

Tech giant Apple is aiming to increase the share of its production in India to 25% of its total production from the current 5%-7%, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday (January 23).

“They (Apple) are already at about 5-7% of their manufacturing in India. If I am not mistaken, they are targeting to go up to 25% of their manufacturing. They launched the most recent models from India, manufactured in India,” Goyal said while addressing an event at Gandhinagar in Gujarat.

However, he did not share any timeline by which Apple aims to achieve this target.

The statement comes at a time when the tech major is diversifying its production capabilities outside China amid a resurgent Covid wave in the country and the ongoing trade war between the US and China. India is one of the countries it is eyeing as a potential manufacturing hub.

It must be noted that Apple’s 14 Chinese suppliers reportedly received initial approval from the Indian government recently to set up assembly plants in the country.

AirPods assembler Luxshare Precision Industry, lens manufacturer Sunny Optical Technology Group, Han’s Laser Technology Industry Group, and Shenzhen YUTO Packaging Technology are among the companies that received the nod from the key Indian ministries.

Apple reportedly exported more than $2.5 Bn worth of iPhones from India during April-December 2022, nearly double than the exports in the entire financial year 2021-22 (FY22). Apple suppliers Foxconn Technology Group and Wistron Corp shipped more than $1 Bn of iPhones each outside India in the first nine months of FY23.

Besides, it reportedly became the first company to export over $1 Bn worth of smartphones from India in a month in December 2022.

Apple started manufacturing its latest iPhone 14 in India in September.

Earlier, brokerage JP Morgan predicted that Apple may manufacture one out of four iPhones in India by 2025. The production shift will not be limited to iPhones, as around 25% of all Apple products, including Mac, iPad, Apple Watch and AirPods, are expected to be manufactured outside China by 2025.

Apple has also sped up its plans to open retail stores in India and is likely to soon unveil the flagship Apple Stores.

Apple accounted for 3.54% of the total Indian smartphone market at the end of December 2022. It competes with Samsung, Xiaomi, Google, and Huawei, among others, in the fast-growing Indian market.