Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China.
The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.
During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) in Taiwan, exported US$3.2 billion of iPhones from India, with an average 97 percent shipped to the US, compared with last year’s average of 50.3 percent, commercially available customs data seen by Reuters showed.
Photo: Reuters
India iPhone shipments by Foxconn to the US last month were nearly US$1 billion, the second-highest ever after the record US$1.3 billion of devices shipped in March, the data showed.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that China would face 55 percent tariffs after the two nations agreed on a plan, subject to both leaders’ approval, to ease levies that had reached triple digits.
India is subject, like most US trading partners, to a baseline 10 percent tariff and is trying to negotiate an agreement to avert a 26 percent “reciprocal” tariff that Trump announced and then paused in April.
Apple’s increased production in India drew a strong rebuke from Trump last month.
“We are not interested in you building in India, India can take care of themselves, they are doing very well, we want you to build here,” Trump recalled telling Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook.
In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4 billion of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7 billion in the whole of last year.
Apple has been taking steps to speed up production from India to bypass tariffs, which would make phones shipped from China to the US much more expensive. The company in March chartered planes to transport US$2 billion of iPhone 13, 14, 16 and 16e models to the US.
Apple has also lobbied Indian airport authorities to cut the time needed to clear customs at Chennai airport from 30 hours to six hours, Reuters has reported. The airport is a key hub for iPhone exports.
“We expect made-in-India iPhones to account for 25 percent to 30 percent of global iPhone shipments in 2025, as compared with 18 percent in 2024,” Counterpoint Research senior analyst Prachir Singh said.
Tata Electronics, the other smaller Apple iPhone supplier in India, on average shipped nearly 86 percent of its iPhone production to the US during March and April, customs data showed. Its data for last month was not available.
The company, part of India’s Tata Group, started exporting iPhones only in July last year and only 52 percent of its shipments went to US last year, the data showed.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promoted India as a smartphone manufacturing hub, but high duties on importing mobile phone components compared with many other nations means it is still expensive to produce the devices in India.
Apple has historically sold more than 60 million iPhones in the US each year, with about 80 percent made in China.
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