Apple Suppliers Making Heavy Investment In UP; iPhone 16 To Be Made In India 

NEW DELHI, (IANS) – With Apple ramping up manufacturing in India amid issues in China, the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) in Uttar Pradesh said on December 21 that some of Apple suppliers have applied for land with the authority, with a proposed investment of Rs 2,800 crore while generating thousands of jobs.

Seiko Advance Limited, an ink manufacturing company is already investing over Rs8,000 crore in the state where Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been elected from.

Apple CEO Tim Cook had visited the company in 2019, when he had said that the ‘Midnight Green’ color dye was “only made by high-quality control and craftsmanship” at its plant.

The Wall Street Journal had earlier reported that the company is “telling its suppliers to plan more actively for assembling Apple products elsewhere in Asia, particularly in India and Vietnam” to “reduce dependence on Taiwanese assemblers led by Foxconn”.

The China upheaval, which hit its key supplier Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory last month, resulting in violent protests, means “Apple no longer feels comfortable having so much of its business tied up in one place”, the report said, citing analysts and people in the Apple supply chain.

Apple aims to ship 40-45 per cent of iPhones from India compared to a single-digit percentage currently, according to analyst Ming-chi Kuo.

Every fourth iPhone will be made in India by 2025, according to J.P. Morgan.

In a fillip to India’s thrust on local manufacturing, Apple had earlier this year kicked off production of new iPhone 14 in India, a first for the tech giant as it narrows down the manufacturing period of new iPhones in the country to cut dependence on China.

Buoyed by the ease-of-doing business and friendly local manufacturing policies, Apple’s ‘Make in India’ iPhones will potentially account for close to 85 percent of its total iPhone production for the country this year, according to industry experts.

Apple first started manufacturing iPhones in India in 2017, with iPhone SE.

The tech giant manufactures some of its most advanced iPhones in the country, including iPhone 11, iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 at the Foxconn facility, while iPhone SE and iPhone 12 are being assembled at the Wistron factory in the country.