Apple Inc partner Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) plans to invest about US$700 million on a new plant in India to ramp up local production, people familiar with the matter said, underscoring an accelerating shift of manufacturing away from China as Washington-Beijing tensions grow.
The company, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) in Taiwan, plans to build the plant to make iPhone parts on a 121 hectare site close to the airport in Bengaluru, the capital of the southern Indian state of Karnataka, said the people, who asked not to be named as the information is not public.
The factory might assemble Apple’s handsets, some of the people said, and Foxconn might also use the site to produce some parts for its nascent electric vehicle business.
Photo: Carlos Garcia Rawlins, Reuters
The investment is one of Foxconn’s biggest single outlays to date in India and underscores how China is at risk of losing its status as the world’s largest producer of consumer electronics.
Apple and other US brands are leaning on their China-based suppliers to explore alternative locations such as India and Vietnam. It is a rethink of the global supply chain that accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, and could reshape the way global electronics are made.
The new production site in India is expected to create about 100,000 jobs, the people said.
The company’s iPhone assembly complex in Zhengzhou, China, employs about 200,000 people at the moment, although that number surges during peak production season.
Output at the plant in Henan Province plunged ahead of the year-end holidays due to pandemic-related disruptions, spurring Apple to re-examine its China-reliant supply chain.
Foxconn’s decision is the latest move that suggests suppliers might move capacity out of China far faster than expected.
The plans could still change, as Foxconn is in the process of finalizing investment and project details, the people said.
It was also unclear whether the plant represents new capacity or production that Foxconn is shifting from other sites such as its Chinese facilities.
Apple declined to comment.
Hon Hai, whose chairman, Young Liu (劉揚偉), met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week, did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
The Karnataka state government also did not immediately respond.
Liu, who is on tour in India, has committed to another manufacturing project in Telangana state.
Foxconn’s decision would be a coup for Modi’s government, which sees an opportunity to close India’s technology gap with China as Western investors and corporations sour on Beijing’s crackdowns on the private sector.
India has offered financial incentives to Apple suppliers such as Foxconn, which began making the latest generation of iPhones at a site in Tamil Nadu last year.
Smaller rivals Wistron Corp (緯創) and Pegatron Corp (和碩) have also ramped up operations in India, while suppliers such as Jabil Inc have begun making components for AirPods there.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary