Apple likely to start iPhone production at Sriperumbudur plant from April

As per news source, it is expected that Apple may start manufacturing iPhone 13 at the Foxconn plant in Sriperumbudur near Chennai from April.

The phones manufactured in the plant will be for both the domestic and export market.

From January the production of the devices was meant to start in the Chennai plant but it had to be postponed after Apple suspended production following protests in December by women workers about food poisoning.

The factory was put on ‘probation’ until Apple took corrective action.

It re-opened in mid-January but production could not be rolled out until February.

Foxconn has to achieve a minimum production value of Rs 8000 crore for 2022-23 over and above the base year as part of its commitment under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme.

The target in 2021-22 is Rs 4,000 crore.

Foxconn manufactures both the iPhone 11 and the iPhone 12.

It has also committed itself to exporting 60 percent of the phones it manufactures for exports in five years under the PLI scheme.

The news source also mentioned that iPhone 13 accounts were sub 20 percent of its total sales.

In contrast, the iPhone 11 is the workhorse, accounting for 60-65 percent of volume sales.

“The numbers for the iPhone 13 are pretty good considering the fact that it does not have any substantial differentiation.

"The newly launched iPhone SE, however, has very limited appeal amongst consumers,” as per news source.

Apple has recently started pre-booking of its new iPhone SE which is priced at Rs 43,900 but this model is made by Wistron (another of Apple’s contract manufacturers), mostly for export and sells in limited numbers in India.

Apple hit revenues of $3.3 billion between 1st October 2020 to 25th September 2021 from India, doubling its revenues.

But the revenue is less than 1 percent of its total global revenues.

Despite this low figure, India remains important, not only as an alternative global hub for manufacturing to China, but as a clearly discernible domestic market.

That’s why the iPhone 13 was laun­ched on the same day in India as in other key global markets such as the US, China, the UAE, Germany, and Australia. Before, India used to have to wait three to four weeks before a new phone was available.