The Tata Group will soon become the first Indian company to assemble iPhones for India and other global markets. Tata has been in talks for months to buy Taiwan-based Wistron Corp's factory in Karnataka.
As Bloomberg reports, the two parties are "close to an agreement," with a formal takeover as early as August. Wistron will assemble the iPhone 14 at its Karnataka facility, which will be overseen by the Tata Group once the deal is finalised. Tata's deal could boost India's reputation in the hardware manufacturing sector, which is also a long-term goal of the PM Narendra Modi-led government. The government is aggressively pushing for its Made-in-India initiative, which was also on the table during PM Modi's latest US visit.
The Wistron factory in Karnataka is worth $600 million (over Rs 4000 crore), the report said. The facility, which employs 10,000 workers, assembles the latest-generation iPhone 14. The report adds that the Taiwanese manufacturer has committed to Apple to ship $1.8 billion worth of iPhones in the current fiscal year.
Wistron has struck a deal with the iPhone maker to win the fiscal year through March 2024, according to people familiar with the Tata-Wistron deal told Bloomberg. The factory plans to triple the workforce at the plant by next year. It is reported that Tata has agreed to honor these agreements.
Apart from Wistron, Apple gets select iPhone models, including the iPhone 13, iPhone 12 and iPhone SE, assembled in India by Taiwanese suppliers such as Foxconn Technology Group and Pegatron Corp.
Tata's deal to acquire a Wistron factory in India is also significant as many tech companies look at Chinese alternatives for assembling their premium devices. Apple is already banking heavily on India as its next manufacturing hub.
A report last month said that Apple will increase iPhone production capacity from 7% by 2023 to 18% by 2025. A boost in the production of electronics like phones also comes from tax incentives from the Indian government.
India has also managed to attract other smartphone players to set up factories in India.
Samsung has opened the "world's largest mobile factory" in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Many Chinese brands, including Xiaomi and Vivo, assemble their devices in the country, which are also exported to other regions.
India's top electronics industry body, the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), informed IANS last month that smartphone exports from the country witnessed a significant growth of 128% during April and May 2023.
The country exported phones worth Rs 12,000 crore in May 2023, with iPhone exports reaching Rs 10,000 crore.
