Apple to make most iPhones for US in India, not China: source

BENGALURU: Apple aims to make most of its iPhones sold in the United States at factories in India by the end of 2026, and is speeding up those plans to navigate potentially higher tariffs in China, its main manufacturing base, a source said.

The US tech giant is holding urgent talks with contract manufacturers Foxconn, and Tata to achieve that goal, the person, who declined to be named as the planning process is confidential, the source said on Friday.

Apple and Foxconn did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while Tata declined to comment.

Apple sells over 60 million iPhones in the US annually with roughly 80 percent of them made in China currently.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has in recent years promoted India as a smartphone manufacturing hub, but higher duties on importing mobile phone parts compared to many other countries means it is still expensive for companies to produce in India. For iPhones, manufacturing costs in India are 5-8 percent higher than in China, with the difference rising to as much as 10 percent in some cases, the source said.

Apple has already stepped up production in India to beat US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, shipping some 600 tons of iPhones worth $2 billion to the United States in March.