In the wake of the recent tariffs debacle, both Bloomberg and The Financial Times are reporting that Apple aims to manufacture import almost all of its iPhones sold in the United States from India, rather than China, by the end of next year.
This means Apple would need India to make more than 60 million phones a year, in order to satisfy its domestic sales. Overall India iPhone assembly would have to approximately double to meet this target, to about 80 million per year.
While Apple was in the process of diversifying iPhone production before the Trump administration took office, it seems the ensuing tariff wars have given motivation to accelerate the plans. Since February, when Trump’s plans for reciprocal tariffs were first announced, Apple’s India production has surged.
For a short while, Apple faced eye-watering 145% tariffs on its Chinese imports.
As of right now, with the smartphone tariff exemption in place, iPhones imported from India would see no tariffs applied to them. Tariffs from iPhones imported from factories in China are currently slapped with 20% levies.
Of course, the US tariff policy changes by the week and the situation may be different by the end of next year. Still, Apple benefits from diversifying its supply chain operations.
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