During this year, BGR has reported Apple’s interest in expanding its supply chain outside China. While the company has businesses in Taiwan and Vietnam, India is the new golden goose of the Cupertino firm, as it wants to expand iPhone and other products manufacturing.
Besides this production expansion, Apple is also investing in its presence in the country. It opened two flagship stores in India, and there’s a rumor that the company’s limited Card businesses could expand to the country in the near future.
That said, the newest report by Bloomberg shows that Foxconn has bought $33 million worth of equipment from an Apple Inc. unit for its operations in India over the past year, which indicates that Apple’s most important manufacturer is accelerating expansion in the country.
The publication got access to a filing between the two companies, offering “a rare glimpse into Foxconn’s dealings with its biggest customer, which sometimes helps finance the cost of equipment that the Taiwanese company uses to make the majority of the world’s iPhones.”
In January, India’s minister of commerce and industry revealed Apple wanted to manufacture 25% of new iPhones in the country. “They’re [Apple] 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,” Indian minister Piyush Goyal said at a conference, per CNBC. He said it’s “another success story” for India.
Interestingly enough, this story was published after the disastrous iPhone 14 launch last year, which was nearly impossible for customers to get their hands on iPhone 14 Pro models during the holiday season due to increased COVID-19 cases in Foxconn’s biggest iPhone factory, making the company stop production for over a month, and, after that, deal with a riot.
After that, Apple started accelerating the expansion of its supply chain outside China. While it’s still unclear how many iPhone 15 models Apple will be able to manufacture in India for the holiday season, this report shows that the Cupertino firm doesn’t want another issue with the supply chain on its most significant release of the year.
BGR will follow Apple’s next steps, including its supply chain plans regarding the iPhone 15 line.
