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Apple’s India manufacturing story got a jolt on Thursday as US president Donald Trump announced that he had told the Cupertino-headquartered company not to manufacture its products in India. Apple is in the midst of an expansion plan to enable all US-bound iPhone exports from India to diversify its supply chain. Currently, China dominates manufacturing of Apple products.
At a business summit in Doha, during his ongoing West Asia trip, Trump said he had expressed his displeasure to Apple CEO Tim Cook about the company’s expansion in India while stressing that he wants the company to invest in the United States. ‘’You are building all over in India. I do not want you building in India,” Trump said. Cook was also in Qatar to meet business executives during the US president’s tour.
Trump’s comments came against the backdrop of India’s talks with the US on a proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) while Trump has kept the ‘reciprocal tariff’ on hold. This also coincides with tariff truce between the US and China, ushering in a shift in global trade realities. Apart from that, Trump had raised the tariff issue recently while claiming the US had mediated a ceasefire during the India-Pakistan conflict.
Just days after the Apple CEO had spoken about the company’s plan to airlift a majority of iPhones for the American market from India, Trump’s statement sent out a reverse message. “We are not interested in you building in India. They (India) can take care of themselves…they are doing very well,” the US president said.
But, government officials in India indicated that Apple, whose products are made by a clutch of contract manufacturers, is unlikely to change its plans immediately.
Relocating complex global supply chains is not something that can be done overnight, according to analysts.
A senior government representative said Apple had assured that there was no change in plan. Another official pointed out that India is attracting multinationals for manufacturing in India for what the country is offering. A commerce ministry official explained that if a company has recognised the value of manufacturing in India, it will continue to grow on that path. ‘’Companies go by their own competitiveness vis-à-vis other companies,’’ he said. Whether it is the US or India, it is for them (Apple) to decide, he said. ‘’We have created an ecosystem which is good for a modern assembly line and as sophisticated as Apple requires,’’ the official added.
Trump’s comment is in line with his push for companies to start looking inward as far as production and supply chains are concerned, said Tarun Pathak, research director of mobile devices and ecosystem at market research firm Counterpoint Research.
“Global supply chains, whether they are in India, China, or any other country, are not built or even moved overnight. The electronics industry is not expected to be impacted immediately by this statement and is slowly and steadily bringing its expertise to the table when it comes to playing a role in attracting global value chains,” Pathak said.
Senior government officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said that unless there was an official action from either the US or Apple, the government would refrain from commenting on Trump’s statements.
“There are several complex factors in global supply chains these days. The decision of any company or industry to start assembly and production lines in a particular country or geography is not only about that company alone. Several thousand suppliers of that company also get impacted,” an official said, asking not to be named.
China, Vietnam and India are among the major manufacturers of iPhones. Apple products are not produced in the US—the company’s biggest market.
Until the pandemic, a majority of iPhone manufacturing was being done in China. Subsequently, Covid lockdowns impacted the production of iPhones and Apple suppliers started to diversify. In the process, India has been a beneficiary. While Apple designs its products in California, it works with a global network of suppliers spanning 50 countries.
During a post-result analyst call earlier this month, Cook had said: “For the June quarter, we expect a majority of the iPhones sold in the US to have India as their country of origin, and almost all iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, and AirPods to have Vietnam as the country of origin.” He had said that China would continue to be the country of origin for a vast majority of Apple product sales outside the US.
In India, Apple assembles and manufactures more than 40 million iPhones on average per year, according to industry estimates. During 2024, the company assembled iPhones worth more than $22 billion in the country. Most of these flagship smartphones are assembled at Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn’s plants in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, and the Tata Group-run Wistron and Pegatron units, also located in these two states.
In the US, while Apple does not manufacture any iPhone, the company had in February committed to invest $500 billion to build a 250,000-sq ft advanced server manufacturing facility in Houston to support Apple Intelligence.
(With inputs from Asit Ranjan Mishra and Surajeet Das Gupta in New Delhi)
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