Apple Inc’s three contract manufacturers are planning to invest a total amount of $900 million in India in the next five years. This was to tap into a new production-linked incentive plan. According to the sources, Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron are planning to make an investment under this scheme. Foxconn has applied to invest about Rs 4000 crore, Pegatron has applied to invest Rs 1300 crore and Wistron has committed to invest Rs 1200 crore.
This scheme will offer companies cash incentives on any rise in sales of locally-produced smartphones over the next five years. This will help India to transform into an export manufacturing hub. This plan will also help Apple diversify its supply chain beyond China.
Wistron roughly assembles 200,000 second-generation iPhone SEs per month in India and it plans to increase that to 400,000 a month by the end of the year. Foxconn, which assembled devices for Xiaomi in India, will use the PLI plan largely to boost iPhone production. Pegatron has been in talks with Tamil Nadu regarding the planned plant to manufacture Apple devices.
Tarun Pathak, an associate director at tech researcher Counterpoint, said, “India is key to Apple’s global ambitions as it expands beyond China. It offers a strategic market to them where skilled labour is cheaper as compared to other manufacturing destinations, the size of the internal market is huge and export potential is enormous.”