Apple arranged chartered cargo flights to transport 600 tons of iPhones — equivalent to up to 1.5 million devices — from India to America, escalating production in India to circumvent President Donald Trump’s tariffs, according to sources cited by Reuters. This move sheds light on the U.S. smartphone giant’s discreet efforts to adapt to the tariff landscape while ensuring a robust stockpile of its sought-after iPhones in the United States, a key market for the company.
Reuters:
Apple “wanted to beat the tariff,” said one of the sources familiar with the planning.
The company lobbied Indian airport authorities to cut to six hours the time needed to clear customs at the Chennai airport in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, down from 30 hours, the source added.
The so-called “green corridor” arrangement at the airport in the Indian manufacturing hub emulated a model Apple uses at some airports in China, the source said.
About six cargo jets with a capacity of 100 tons each have flown out since March, one of them this week just as new tariffs kicked in, the source and an Indian government official said.
The packaged weight of an iPhone 14 and its charging cable come to about 350 grams (12.35 oz), Reuters measurements show, implying the total cargo of 600 tons comprised about 1.5 million iPhones, after accounting for some packaging weight.
MacDailyNews Take: As we reported on Tuesday, “Apple has reportedly been stocking up on inventory ahead of tariff increases and has enough product already imported into America to weather the tariff negotiations with myriad countries, keeping iPhone prices unchanged for several months.”
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1.5 million phones does not a stockpile make.
For Apple, that’s 3 day’s worth of volume.
It won’t go far.
Trump’s tariffs will destroy the greatest American company. One that already brings 90% of the value created back to American soil.
Trump is chasing the least valuable part of the business at the expense of the whole thing.
Nobody wants to make iPhones.
Everyone wants to own them, make apps for them, consume or deliver services on them, etc. etc.
This IS NOT just about tariffs. Looking at the trees misses the forest. China is more than an economic competitor. AAPL is/will suffer as this plays out. You/I have gained significantly with the financialized relationship that’s cost the US in other very material ways.
Riding high on the crest (AAPL), while the sands shifted (we’ve all excoriated TC) for putting all marbles in a bad place and then being surprised with a big bump in the road, is like child wanting their cake and eat it too. It’s not irrational to say that Cook is responsible for any AAPL disruption/downgrade/demise. Trump is running a Country…not with a singular company focus. (As much as I reject making policy decisions for an individual company, he has spoken about some tariff leniency for AAPL.)
To think China should be able to tilt the market to their favor, while expanding all over the World and inputting their toxic influence in the US, is bizarre. To think Cook is free from the blame and all is on Trump is clear bias. To think I like AAPL’s 20-30 drop is far from the truth, but it appears (time will tell), tariffs have been a good tool for some kind of China reckoning.
This story is way more than tariffs, AAPL, and temporary market disruption. The US is walking the edge of an economic knife and has been for yrs. A “reset” of some kind is inevitable and the current situ could be a factor in materializing it for the positive, or for the negative. Call him foolish, or call him courageous; Trump is addressing the inevitable.
Apple’s impressive 600-ton iPhone inventory, as Daring Fireball rightly pointed out, pales in comparison to the daily production of about 50 tons. Consequently, Apple’s pre-tariff inventory was a mere 12-14 days.
This serves as a stark reminder of Apple’s colossal scale in iPhone production. Regardless of any policy changes, such as those proposed by Trump or others, significant iPhone production in the USA is unlikely to materialize in the near future. If you’re interested in having a 500,000-population factory city in your backyard, raise your hand.
“Apple sells about 50 tons of new iPhones in the US alone every day.” Daring Fireball