“Friendshoring” Ramps Up As Apple’s Made-In-India Iphones Tops $14 Billion

Global supply chains have fractured since former President Trump started the trade war with China. One of the largest beneficiaries is India, which has become the prime spot for “friend-shoring” US manufacturing supply chains out of the world’s second-largest economy as relations with the West deteriorate. 

Bloomberg reports that Apple makes 14%, or about 1 in 7 iPhones in India. The rapid increase in iPhone production in India suggests that Apple is accelerating efforts to reduce reliance on China amid worsening Sino-US relations. 

According to Bloomberg sources:

Foxconn Technology Group assembled nearly 67% and Pegatron Corp. about 17% of the India-made iPhones in the fiscal year ended March 2024. The remaining iPhones were made in Wistron Corp.’s plant in southern Karnataka state, which the salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group took over last year. Tata plans to build one of the country’s biggest iPhone assembly plants.

Meanwhile… 

China still produces the largest share of iPhones, though the shift is already underway in a trend called friend-shoring. We have pointed this out for the last several years: 

• “Friendshoring” Trend Sees Companies Moving Ops To Dodge Tensions And Trade Wars
• “Confidence Shaken:” US Firms In China Look Elsewhere As ‘Friendshoring’ Gathers Steam
• Apple Triples iPhone Production In India As Split With China Accelerates

Michael Every at Rabobank outlined India years ago as the largest beneficiary of friendshoring. 

“… and, of course, Tim Cook can’t publicly announce the rejiggering of supply chains out of China as it would infuriate Beijing. So he recently praised Apple’s ‘symbiotic’ relationship with China,” we noted last April. 

The shift from China also came as Goldman removed Apple from its “Conviction List” and Evercore ISI dropped Apple from its “Tactical Outperform” list due to sliding iPhone sales in the world’s largest smartphone market. 

Furthermore, the relationship between the US and India is entering a new chapter as friend-shoring policies bring the nations closer together.