Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, has won approval to invest at least US$1 billion more in a plant it is building in India that is to make Apple Inc products, a major ramp-up in its goal of building a hub beyond China.
The world’s biggest assembler of iPhones plans to spend that amount on top of the US$1.6 billion it earlier set aside for the 120-hectare site close to Bengaluru’s airport, people familiar with the matter said.
The new capital would bankroll additional capacity for Apple devices, including the iPhone, they said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Including the most recently approved spending, Hon Hai would have set aside about US$2.7 billion for the site, set to become the centerpiece of the its manufacturing capabilities in India.
The company, Apple’s most important manufacturing partner, has ramped up its budget for the plant at least once this year. It started out in early this year with plans to invest just US$700 million in the complex, located in the southern technology hub of Karnataka.
The Karnataka government on Tuesday said that it had approved another 139.11 billion rupees (US$1.7 billion) of overall Foxconn investment in the state, without specifying details.
The company could also use the site to produce parts for its nascent electric vehicle business, people said.
Apple’s partners are accelerating efforts to establish a supply chain in India at a time when Chinese firms are edging away from the nation amid tensions between New Delhi and Beijing.
India’s Tata conglomerate, another Apple partner, is seeking to build one of India’s biggest iPhone assembly plants in Tamil Nadu state.
India’s regulatory scrutiny of smartphone makers such as Xiaomi Corp (小米) and Vivo Communication Technology Co (維沃) has also discouraged some Chinese companies from setting up operations in the world’s second-largest smartphone market.
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