A Foxconn plant in Sriperumbudur is preparing to deliver the newest devices only weeks after they start shipping from factories in China, as the company seeks to swiftly increase the volume of new iPhones coming from India, people familiar with the matter said.
The California-based firm is on a multi-year project to diversify its manufacturing away from China, de-risking the supply chain for its most important products as tensions between Washington and Beijing make trade less predictable. India has sought to build closer ties with the US and make itself a manufacturing hub. Before the iPhone 14, Apple had only a sliver of its iPhone assembly in India, which lagged China output by six to nine months. That delay was reduced last year, and Apple produced 7% of its iPhones in India by March. The goal this year is to move closer to parity on shipment timing, though suppliers are not certain they’ll achieve it, people, asking not to be named, said.
The scale of India production for the iPhone 15 will depend on the ready availability of components, and the smooth ramp-up of production lines at the Foxconn factory outside Chennai. The new iPhone is likely to be announced on September 12. Bloomberg