Foxconn Begins iPhone 15 Production In India

Production of the Apple iPhone 15 begins in India, just weeks ahead of its expected launch on 12 September.

Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources, that production of the upcoming iPhone 15 handset is beginning at Foxconn’s Sriperumbudur plant.

It comes as the Taiwanese manufacturer continues to diversify its manufacturing from China. Earlier this week Foxconn made clear it is not finished investing in India, when Chairman Young Liu said his firm is planning “billions” of dollars in investments in the country.

Manufacturing iPhones

According to the Bloomberg report, Foxconn’s Sriperumbudur plant is getting ready to deliver the new phones weeks after they begin shipping from China-based factories.

Pegatron and a Wistron factory being acquired by the Tata Group, will also soon begin assembling the iPhone 15 in India, according to Bloomberg.

Bloomberg previously reported in April that Apple has been ramping up production in India, assembling more than $7 billion worth of stock there in the last fiscal year.

Indeed, according to that report, Apple is said to have produced nearly 7 percent of its iPhones in India.

Prior to that, iPhone assembly in India lagged China by six to nine months, Bloomberg reported, but that gap has significantly closed.

Last September Apple said it it had begun manufacturing its current iPhone 14 in India for the first time.

India presence

Foxconn is a significant investor in India and has more than 30 factories in the country, including 20 dormitories that house tens of thousands of workers.

In March that Foxconn said it will build a new 300-acre facility in Bengaluru, India to manufacture ‘electronics’, thought to be iPhone parts.

It began its Indian operations in 2006.

Indeed Foxconn’s India operations account for about $10 billion – or just under 5 percent – of the company’s annual turnover, which stood at $6.627 trillion new Taiwan dollars ($207 billion) last year.

China move

Prior to that in December 2022, Foxconn said it may move as much as 30 percent of its manufacturing capacity out of China to India, Vietnam and Brazil as it and other electronics manufacturers seek to diversify and limit supply chain disruption caused by geopolitical tensions and public health challenges.

Foxconn reportedly began the multiyear diversification effort before the Covid-19 pandemic, with India emerging as an attractive manufacturing base due to its large population and high birth rate.

Vietnam meanwhile offers lower labour costs than China, and now has 21 Apple suppliers operating in the country, although it can’t yet produce the iPhone.