In an effort to diversify its global supply chain and move manufacturing out of China, Apple has informed its component suppliers of its preference to source batteries for the upcoming iPhone 16 from Indian factories, media report said on Wednesday.
According to the Financial Times, battery manufacturers, such as Desay of China, have been encouraged to establish new factories in India, while Simplo Technology, a Taiwanese battery supplier for Apple, has been asked to increase manufacturing in India for future orders.
Earlier this week, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said Japanese electronic parts maker TDK Corp will manufacture lithium-ion (li-ion) battery cells for Apple iPhones in India.
“Another big win for PM @narendramodi ji’s visionary PLI scheme in shifting the mobile manufacturing ecosystem to India. TDK, a leading supplier of cells to Apple, is setting up a 180-acre facility in Manesar, Haryana to build cells for batteries which will be used in the #MadeInIndia iPhones,” he wrote on X.
Companies like Desay and Simplo package the electric cells produced by TDK and their counterparts into modules and send them to assemblers such as Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn, the report mentioned.
Foxconn plans to invest $1.54 billion in India. In a stock exchange filing, Foxconn said that the investment will help it fulfil “operational needs.”
Meanwhile, Apple has asked the Indian government to exempt its existing iPhones from the requirement of a common charging port (USB-C) for electronics devices, as the Centre evaluates the possibility of mandating a common charger for most devices.
In a meeting with the IT Ministry officials late last month, Apple told the officials that if such a rule — similar to what has been proposed by the European Union (EU) to require devices to have universal charging ports — is brought, it may hamper its domestic manufacturing plans, reliable sources told IANS.
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