Apple to Move iPhone 14 Manufacturing to India

Apple has announced that it will be moving the production of its newest phone, the iPhone 14, to India, shifting production away from China. This shows a major shift as China owns 30% of global manufacturing, according to a report on manufacturing industry statistics for 2021 by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. 

Apple has been manufacturing older versions of its iPhones in India since 2017. However, the iPhone 14 will be the first time a new iPhone will be manufactured at Foxconn’s Sriperumbudur factory near Chennai, India.

How India is taking advantage of China’s Strict Lockdowns

China, particularly Bejing, has continued to struggle under the weight of COVID-19 resurgences and implemented strict lockdown policies, despite much of the world returning to a measure of normalcy. China’s zero-COVID policy has disrupted production across the entire country, majorly impacting the supply chain of many companies. 

While China continues to struggle with lockdown issues, India and other countries, including the United States have decided to ramp up their domestic chip manufacturing, laying out incentives for the semiconductor industry to help drive interest in relocating manufacturing operations. Apple has already begun looking for a reason to increase sales in India, where iPhone only holds 3.8% of the market share. Bringing the tech giants full cycle manufacturing to the country seems to be a win-win solution.  

SiliconExpert will be keeping an eye out for new updates on chip manufacturing moving into other countries outside of China and Taiwan as they continue to have geo-political supply chain disruptions.

What Could More Chip Production outside of China mean? 

China and Taiwan are currently responsible for a combined 70% of the world’s semiconductors. With countries like India and the United States investing in their own semiconductor industries, we can expect to see a shift in the coming years in your supply chain. Diversifying global manufacturing and chip fabrication among different countries will minimize strain and the risk of disruption on the electronics supply chain. 

SiliconExpert monitors major developments in the electronics and manufacturing market and alerts you to risk in your Bill of Materials (BOM). With BOM Manager, you’ll be able to see BOM health risk alerts which notify you if the BOM contains parts at risk of disruption, such as a drop in inventory or increase in lead time. 

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