Hyderabad: Apple supplier Foxconn is planning to invest $1 billion (over Rs 7,500 crore) to expand its facility at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu where the Taiwanese contract manufacturer assembles Apple iPhones. The move is seen as a gradual production shift by Apple away from China to navigate through disruptions arising from a trade war between China and the US as well as the crisis created by the pandemic.
Foxconn’s proposed investment in the Sriperumbudur plant, near Chennai, where Apple’s iPhone XR is made, will take place over the next three years. According to reports, some of Apple’s other iPhone models, made by the company in China, could now be made in Tamil Nadu.
Taiwanese company is expected to add 6,000 jobs at this unit as per the current plan. The company also operates another plant in Andhra Pradesh, where it makes smartphones for China’s Xiaomi. Foxconn chairman Liu Young-way last month hinted that the company would ramp up its investment in India.
Apple accounts for nearly one per cent of overall smartphone sales in India, the world’s second-biggest smartphone market. Building more phones in the country will help Apple save on import taxes that impact the prices.
India is trying to boost electronics manufacturing by encouraging firms such as Foxconn to invest by providing incentives to establish or expand domestic production.
South Korea-based Samsung has already announced this week its plans to make smartphones for export from its Noida plant.
