There have already been reports of increased shipments of Indian-assembled iPhones to the US in the last days of March, but now Reuters is using official customs statistics. In March, Apple shipped a record-breaking $2 billion worth of smartphones of various models from India to the US.
Image Source: Apple
As noted earlier, their urgent transportation required organizing at least six flights to the United States, and the total weight of the consignment reached 600 tons. According to Reuters, the bulk of the iPhones were sent from India to Chicago in March, with the remaining smartphones also delivered to Los Angeles and New York. For their accelerated customs clearance, which took only 6 hours instead of the usual 30, Apple also had to make some efforts in cooperation with the Indian authorities.
The bulk of March iPhone exports from India were provided by Taiwanese company Foxconn, which shipped products worth a total of $1.31 billion, which became a monthly record. In fact, in January and February together, Foxconn shipped Apple smartphones worth the same amount for shipment to the US. In total, since March last year, the company has manufactured in India for the US market a quantity of iPhones equivalent to $5.3 billion in value terms. Foxconn manufactured the iPhone 13, iPhone 14, iPhone 16 and the recently introduced iPhone 16e at its facilities in India.
The second supplier of iPhones from India to the US was Tata Electronics, whose contribution to logistics in this direction was estimated at $612 million in March, which is 63% more than in February. In this case, the range of models was limited to the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16. Apple sought to import as many smartphones as possible to the US in anticipation of an increase in customs duties, which allowed the export of these products from India to reach a record value of more than $1.92 billion in March. A fifth of all iPhones are now assembled in the country.