Last year, India’s iPhone exports grew 54% to $17 billion

In the context of the proposed imbalance of import duties on goods from China and India to the United States, respectively, the US interest in strengthening trade cooperation with the latter country has noticeably increased. Indian authorities have reinforced the relevance of this course by stating that last year the country exported iPhones worth a total of $17.4 billion.

Image Source: Apple

Until recently, India made one in seven iPhones sold globally, while Chinese assembly accounted for 80%. However, this week, Ashwini Vaishnaw, the minister for railways, IT, broadcasting and electronics, said that India exported 54% more iPhones last fiscal than the year before. At least in value terms, shipments increased to $17.4 billion.

By some estimates, if all Apple smartphones manufactured in India were sent to the American market, they would cover up to half of its demand for iPhones. In the situation with growing tariffs on imports from China, such a decision could be a good way to prevent rapid price increases for Apple products for American consumers for some time. Trump is already threatening to raise the tariff on Chinese goods to 104%, while India can get away with raising the tariff to 36%.

The expansion of iPhone production in India coincided with the pandemic, when smartphone production in China was hampered by strict sanitary measures taken by local authorities. At that time, the Indian authorities also took a course on developing the national electronics industry and helped Apple’s partners launch local enterprises. True, in the case of the production facilities of Wistron and Pegatron, it is appropriate to talk about their transfer under the control of the Indian conglomerate Tata Group, but Foxconn continues to manufacture Apple products independently in India. The latter, as noted recently, took advantage of the opportunity to form increased iPhone stocks in the United States, sending five full planeloads of its smartphones and other devices assembled locally and in China from India at the end of March before the new customs duties came into force.