Foxconn to begin mass production of iPhones in India

Terry Gou, Group Chairman, Foxconn Technology, said the iPhone will go into mass production in India this year, a shift for the largest assembler of Apple Inc.'s handsets that has long concentrated production in China. Gou said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited him to India as his Taiwanese company plans its expansion in the country. Apple has had older phones produced at a plant in Bangalore for several years but now will expand manufacturing to more recent models. Foxconn already has two assembly sites in the southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, where it makes devices for Xiaomi and Nokia. Locating more production in India would help diversify Apple and Foxconn's manufacturing footprint away from China amid ongoing trade tensions with the U.S. The Indian assembly line of Foxconn's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. would serve local and export markets by the time Apple announces its next iPhone models in September, people familiar with the matter have said. The Taiwanese contract manufacturer, the biggest maker of iPhones, will initially invest about $300 million to set up for Apple with investments to ramp up as capacity expands. Gou said that his company is talking with the government about investment terms. He has a dozen software people in India and he plans to increase that to 600. Producing phones locally would also help Apple's retail push in India. The company needs to meet a 30 per cent local sourcing rule to be able to open its own stores in the country.