Apple is reportedly chartering cargo flights to ferry iPhones from its Indian manufacturing crops to the US in an try and beat Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The tech firm has flown 600 tonnes of iPhones, or as many as 1.5m handsets, to the US from India since March after ramping up manufacturing at its crops within the nation, in line with Reuters.
Trump’s threatened tariffs of 26% on Indian imports are on maintain for about three months after the US president referred to as a 90-day pause, however he has introduced that tariffs on items from China – the place Apple assembles most of its iPhones – shall be topic to a levy of no less than 145%.
A supply aware of the planning behind the transfer informed Reuters Apple “wished to beat the tariff”. India should nonetheless pay import taxes below Trump’s measures however on the lowered price of 10%.
Analysts have warned iPhone costs might surge after the US imposed its highest tariff on imports from China, with the funding financial institution UBS estimating an iPhone 16 Professional Max with 256GB of storage might improve in worth by greater than two-thirds from $1,199 (£925) to just about $2,000 if Apple passes on a considerable chunk of the tariff prices.
Reuters reported that Apple had focused a 20% improve in manufacturing at iPhone crops in India. It did this by rising the variety of employees, and briefly extending operations on the greatest Foxconn India manufacturing facility in Chennai to Sundays.
The Chennai plant produced 20m iPhones final 12 months, together with the most recent iPhone 15 and 16 fashions. Apple has three crops in India operated by Foxconn and Tata.
The Wall Avenue Journal reported this week that Apple deliberate to ship extra iPhones to the US from India as a “short-term stopgap” whereas the corporate tried to safe an exemption from the China tariffs. If Apple diverted all India-made iPhones to the US it might account for about 50% of American demand this 12 months, in line with the Financial institution of America analyst Wamsi Mohan.
Analysts have warned that shifting iPhone manufacturing to the US could be prohibitively costly due to elements equivalent to the price of paying a whole lot of hundreds of employees. Analysts at Wedbush Securities, a US monetary providers firm, have stated a US-made iPhone would price $3,500.
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“If shoppers need a $3,500 iPhone we must always make them in New Jersey or Texas or one other state,” stated Dan Ives, a Wedbush analyst, in a be aware to traders this week.
Apple was contacted for remark.
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