Tamil Nadu tops electronics exports driven by Apple; up 53% in FY25

Driven by a rapid rise in Apple's India focus, Tamil Nadu has posted a 53 per cent rise in electronic exports during 2024–25 to $14.65 billion, up from $9.56 billion in 2023–24.

 

This comes after the state posted a 78 per cent increase in exports last year, from $5.37 billion in 2022–23. "Tamil Nadu hits a historic high in electronic exports in FY25. That’s a staggering 41.23 per cent of India’s total electronics exports. Congratulations to the entire electronics ecosystem in the state," said state industries minister TRB Rajaa.

 

In 2024–25, Karnataka became the number two exporting state with $7.85 billion, contributing 22 per cent to the national exports, followed by Uttar Pradesh with $5.26 billion worth of exports and 15 per cent of the national share. The other top states in the list are Maharashtra ($3.51 billion), Gujarat ($1.85 billion), and Telangana ($641.56 million).

 

In FY25, about 80 per cent of the iPhones shipped to the US came from China. But in the same year, the growing demand for iPhones in the US was met by India-assembled phones, including the latest iPhone 16. Apple vendors (Tata Electronics and Foxconn) were able to hit exports of Rs 1.5 trillion (over $17.5 billion) of iPhones at FOB (free on board) value. That’s more than double what they had committed to achieve under the scheme to the government in the fourth year. Half of that came from exports to the US.

 

As a result, India’s share in the global production value of iPhones has now hit between 18 and 20 per cent. Interestingly, out of around 14 existing manufacturing units in Apple’s supply chain, more than seven are already in Tamil Nadu. This is at a time when the American technology giant is increasing production in India through its biggest vendors—Foxconn, Pegatron, Tata Electronics, and Wistron—to increase production capacity in India. The existing seven suppliers in Tamil Nadu are Tata Electronics, Flex, Hon Hai Precision Industry Company (the formal name of Foxconn), Lingyi iTech, On Semiconductor, Pegatron Corporation, Taiwan Surface Mounting Technology, and Zhen Ding Technology Holding.