Bye The group is reaching an agreement to acquire Apple’s supplier factory in India. The factory is likely to be taken over by August and after its closure, it will be the first time a local company will start assembling iPhones.
According to the news agency Bloomberg, Tata Group is looking to acquire a factory of Wistron Corporation in Karnataka. The factory, with more than 10,000 employees, is valued at over $600 million and currently assembles the iPhone 14 models.
Wistron Corp has committed to shipping $1.8 billion worth of iPhones by the fiscal year ending March 2024 and tripling the factory workforce over the next year. The Bloomberg report claimed that the Tata Group will honor these commitments after acquiring the factory. The acquisition of the Wistron Corp factory would mean the end of the Taiwanese company’s iPhone manufacturing operation in India.
The Government of India has launched various programs in recent years to encourage manufacturing in the country. On the other hand, Apple is also looking at diversifying its iPhone production beyond China to other South Asian countries. Other major Apple suppliers, such as Foxconn Group and Pegatron Corporation, have also recently increased their production.
iPhone production by an Indian brand could prompt other global companies to consider manufacturing in India to reduce their dependence on China.
An earlier report by TrendForce claimed that the upcoming iPhone 15 and iphone 15 The Plus model could be manufactured in India by the Tata group. The report claimed that Tata Group will get small orders i.e. the company will get only small orders for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus.
This could also mean that India becomes part of the first wave of shipments for the new iPhone series, which is expected to launch in September this year.
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UPDATE: July 11, 2023, 12:25 PM IST