US President Donald Trump said he has asked Apple Inc chief executive officer Tim Cook to stop building plants in India to make devices for the US, pushing the iPhone maker to add domestic production as it pivots away from China.
“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said of his conversation with Apple CEO in Qatar, where he’s on a state visit. “He is building all over India. I don’t want you building in India.” As a result of their discussion, Trump said Apple will be “upping their production in the United States.”
Apple representatives in India did not respond to a request for comment.
Photo: Saul Loeb, AFP
Trump’s comments threaten to throw a wrench into Apple’s plan to import most of the iPhones it sells in the US from India by the end of next year, accelerating a shift beyond China to mitigate risks related to tariffs and geopolitical tensions.
Apple makes most of its iPhones in China and has no smartphone production in the US — though it’s promised to hire more workers at home and pledged to spend US$500 billion domestically over the next four years.
Building iPhones from scratch in the US will be extremely difficult even for cash-rich Apple. The supply chain for iPhones and skilled labor for a such a precisely engineered product have been concentrated in China for years, and Apple’s only just started forging local partnerships in India. Expensive American labor and manufacturing also makes iPhone production in the US untenable. India, on the other hand, is one of Apple’s fastest-growing markets with a vast customer base that aspires to buy its iconic products. The country also has state subsidies to help it expand assembly.
“This is a familiar Trump tactic: He wants to push Apple to localize more and build a supply chain in the US, which is not going to happen overnight,” Counterpoint research director Tarun Pathak said. “Making in the US will also be much more expensive than assembling iPhones in India.”
Apple “has one of the most sophisticated supply chains built out over years,” Pathak said. “To disrupt that or to completely move out of India or China will be extremely difficult.”
Trump’s comments suggest he’s fine with Apple building its products in India for that market. “You can build in India if you want, to take care of India,” he said.
Trump also discussed tariff negotiations with India, saying the South Asian country has made an offer to drop import taxes on US goods. India has one of the highest tariff barriers in the world and it’s very hard to sell American products in the planet’s most populous country, Trump said.
The iPhone facilities in India produce more than 40 million units per year, about 20 percent of Apple’s annual output.
The bulk of India-made iPhones are assembled at Foxconn Technology Group’s (富士康) factory in southern India. Tata Group’s electronics manufacturing arm, which bought Wistron Corp’s (緯創) local business and runs Pegatron Corp’s (和碩) operations in India, is another key supplier. Tata and Foxconn are also building new plants and adding production capacity in southern India, Bloomberg News reported previously.
Apple assembled US$22 billion worth of iPhones in India in the 12 months through March, increasing production by nearly 60 percent over the previous year.
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