Apple plans to produce all iPhones sold in America at its India factories by the end of 2026, accelerating efforts to shift manufacturing out of Chinese Communist Party-controlled China, its primary production hub, to avoid potential U.S. import tariffs.
Michael Acton, Stephen Morris, John Reed, and Kathrin Hille for Financial Times:
Apple plans to shift the assembly of all US-sold iPhones to India as soon as next year, according to people familiar with the matter, as President Donald Trump’s trade war forces the tech giant to pivot away from China.
The push builds on Apple’s strategy to diversify its supply chain but goes further and faster than investors appreciate, with a goal to source from India the entirety of the more than 60mn iPhones sold annually in the US by the end of 2026.
China, where Apple manufactures the majority of its iPhones via third parties such as Foxconn, has been subject to the US president’s most aggressive levies, though he has since signalled a willingness to negotiate with Beijing.
India was hit with a so-called reciprocal tariff of 26 per cent, though this is paused while New Delhi pushes for a bilateral trade agreement with the US. On a visit to India this week, US vice-president JD Vance said the two countries were making “very good progress”.
The US accounted for about 28 per cent of Apple’s 232.1mn global iPhone shipments in 2024, according to the International Data Corporation.
Reuters:
The U.S. tech giant is holding urgent talks with contract manufacturers Foxconn and Tata to achieve that goal, the person, who declined to be named as the planning process is confidential, said on Friday.
Apple sells over 60 million iPhones in the U.S. annually with roughly 80% of them made in China currently.
For iPhones, manufacturing costs in India are 5-8% higher than in China, with the difference rising to as much as 10% in some cases, the source said.
As Apple diversifies its manufacturing beyond China, it has positioned India for a critical role. Foxconn and Tata, its two main suppliers there, have three factories in all, with two more being built.
MacDailyNews Take: Better late than never, we always say!
• The time to accelerate plans to move production out of China was November 9th 2016, but, hey, six years late is better than never! – MacDailyNews, December 4, 2022
• Diversify, diversify, diversify – especially away from CCP-controlled China. – MacDailyNews, October 19, 2022
• Apple cannot divest their dependence on China quickly enough (because they started years too late). – MacDailyNews. August 17, 2022
Former U.S. President Richard Nixon, who opened relations with China in the early 1970’s, just before his death in 1994 remarked on China: We may have created a Frankenstein.
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Apple doesn’t learn its lessons from depending on China, Apple should deversify manufactures many different places.
Maybe Apple should just manufacture iPhones right here in America and reduce its dependence on foreign countries hostile to the U.S.
During the industrial revolution, capitalists profited from child labor and inhumane working conditions. This led to the rise of unions, which made the case for better wages and better, safer work environments. This caused the capitalists of the time to begin to look overseas for cheaper (more profitable) ways to do business. Today we are living with those decisions.
The issue with moving manufacturing back to the US has been presented as one of costs to consumers, but it really comes down to worries about shareholder profit. Until this issue is addressed, manufacturing and jobs will remain where they are, or shift around to anywhere but here in the US.
True…the owners drive their business and maximizing profits is the goal…but to say it’s not about prices (cost to consumers) is flying over half the issue. Consumers are looking for value (well priced items) and owners want to meet that need to maximize their profit.
The point; owner’s profit and consumer’s costs are inextricably linked.
Looking overseas wasn’t half of the push it was decades after the Industrial Rev.
LMFAO, go nuts and pay $4000 for that new iphone
And sell quite a few less, or know that buyers will downscale to lower unit price.
There’s no way iPhones could be made in the US w/o a “hit.” Wages make it inevitable.
It’s a worthy thought, but….
(Tariffs seemed to have expedited Cook’s lazy/careless plan)
I disagree, automation and tax incentives could help offset any additional manufacturing cost.
“Tax incentives.” In other words, someone will pay the increased cost.
There’s never something for nothing and hiding is the game the US has been playing for decades…leading us to the debt-trap we are facing.
“Automation” will solve the leagues-of-employees problem inherent with the US, but the wages will be NO WHERE near current, as the jobs will be more specialized.
No way around it. iPhones will/would cost more…in real terms (no subsides, tax breaks).
You mean socialism for the rich? So you have no problems giving OUR tax payer money to the rich so they can make more money on selling us their SHIT! True America for all to see!