Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), is within weeks of starting trial production of the latest iPhones in India as Apple Inc seeks to revive its fortunes in the country, people familiar with the matter said.
The trial run of the iPhone X range of devices would come before Foxconn starts full-scale assembly at its factory outside the southern Indian city of Chennai, the people said, asking not to be identified as the plans are private.
Wistron Corp (緯創) already produces older models, such as the iPhone 6s, iPhone SE and iPhone 7, at a plant in Bengaluru, India.
Photo: Bloomberg
Apple has become a minor player in India with about 1 percent of the country’s shipments, as its higher prices deter customers in the world’s fastest-growing major market.
Production in India would help the Cupertino, California-based company avoid import duties of 20 percent and also meet a 30 percent local sourcing rule that would allow it to open its own stores in the country.
“Seen from Cupertino. the India market looks minuscule, so Apple’s strategy has been myopic,” Counterpoint Research director of research Neil Shah said. “They haven’t capitalized on the ground potential — India will cross a half-billion smartphone users this year.”
As Apple’s market share declines in China and a US-China trade dispute heats up, the US company needs to diversify into India.
“Apple no longer wants to keep all its eggs in one basket,” Shah said.
Indians last year bought more than 140 million smartphones, with just 1.7 million sold by Apple, as consumers favored cheaper models from China.
On Xiaomi Corp’s (小米) Indian Web site, the Redmi Note 7 has a price of 9,999 rupees (US$145), one-10th the price of Apple’s iPhone Xs in the country.
In the first two months of this year, Apple shipped about 150,000 devices in India and is likely to see an about 50 percent drop in the quarter ended last month from the year earlier, Shah said.
A spokeswoman for Apple did not respond to e-mailed questions about India production.
Foxconn did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
Hon Hai’s Indian assembly line would serve local and export markets by the time Apple announces its next iPhone models in September, the sources said.
The Taiwanese contract manufacturer, the biggest maker of iPhones, would initially invest about US$300 million to set up for Apple, with investments to ramp up as capacity expands, they said.
Foxconn has two assembly sites in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, where it makes devices for Xiaomi and Nokia Corp.
Locating more production in India would also help diversify Apple and Foxconn’s manufacturing footprint away from China amid the ongoing trade tensions with the US.
In December last year, the Hindu newspaper reported that Foxconn would make iPhones at the Chennai plant this year, citing an announcement at a Cabinet meeting led by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) secured a record 70.2 percent share of the global foundry business in the second quarter, up from 67.6 percent the previous quarter, and continued widening its lead over second-placed Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Monday. TSMC posted US$30.24 billion in sales in the April-to-June period, up 18.5 percent from the previous quarter, driven by major smartphone customers entering their ramp-up cycle and robust demand for artificial intelligence chips, laptops and PCs, which boosted wafer shipments and average selling prices, TrendForce said in a report. Samsung’s sales also grew in the second quarter, up
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump weighed in on a pressing national issue: The rebranding of a restaurant chain. Last week, Cracker Barrel, a Tennessee company whose nationwide locations lean heavily on a cozy, old-timey aesthetic — “rocking chairs on the porch, a warm fire in the hearth, peg games on the table” — announced it was updating its logo. Uncle Herschel, the man who once appeared next to the letters with a barrel, was gone. It sparked ire on the right, with Donald Trump Jr leading a charge against the rebranding: “WTF is wrong with Cracker Barrel?!” Later, Trump Sr weighed
HEADWINDS: Upfront investment is unavoidable in the merger, but cost savings would materialize over time, TS Financial Holding Co president Welch Lin said TS Financial Holding Co (台新新光金控) said it would take about two years before the benefits of its merger with Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) become evident, as the group prioritizes the consolidation of its major subsidiaries. “The group’s priority is to complete the consolidation of different subsidiaries,” Welch Lin (林維俊), president of the nation’s fourth-largest financial conglomerate by assets, told reporters during its first earnings briefing since the merger took effect on July 24. The asset management units are scheduled to merge in November, followed by life insurance in January next year and securities operations in April, Lin said. Banking integration,
LOOPHOLES: The move is to end a break that was aiding foreign producers without any similar benefit for US manufacturers, the US Department of Commerce said US President Donald Trump’s administration would make it harder for Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc to ship critical equipment to their chipmaking operations in China, dealing a potential blow to the companies’ production in the world’s largest semiconductor market. The US Department of Commerce in a notice published on Friday said that it was revoking waivers for Samsung and SK Hynix to use US technologies in their Chinese operations. The companies had been operating in China under regulations that allow them to import chipmaking equipment without applying for a new license each time. The move would revise what is known
RSS