China complicating efforts as Apple tries to shift iPhone productions to India

Ongoing trade conflicts between the US and China have highlighted that Apple’s dependence on China for product assembly has become a liability for the company. This is the reason why Apple is planning to shift more of its supply chain to India. What was once seen as a strength for Apple, in the midst of an ongoing US-China trade war, is currently a major vulnerability in Wall Street’s eyes.

 However, China is complicating those efforts and creating several roadblocks, with Chinese authorities not making that very easy.

According to The Information, Apple has been making moves to try reducing its dependence on China…but as has been reported previously, Chinese authorities aren’t making that very easy.

Wayne Ma writes at The Information – “Earlier this year, Chinese authorities refused to allow one of Apple’s Chinese equipment suppliers to export machinery to India that Apple needed for the upcoming iPhone 17’s trial production, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. So the supplier got creative.

It set up a front company in Southeast Asia to buy the machines. Once the equipment reached the Southeast Asian country, it went to a factory in India operated by Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that builds most of Apple’s iPhones in China, the people said.

Ma continues later, “In many cases, Chinese authorities are delaying or blocking shipments of iPhone equipment to India without explanation, according to multiple people involved in iPhone production.”

Foxconn has seen approval times from Chinese authorities for exporting iPhone-making equipment from its China factories to those in India rise from two weeks to as long as four months, one of the people said. They are also rejecting some export applications without explanation, the person added.

In times to come, Apple aims to move half of iPhone production out of China.

Currently Apple assembles roughly 20% of iPhones in India, a number that’s taken several years to build up to. Per the report, Apple wants to take things much further though, with “a long-term goal of moving about half of its iPhone production out of China.”