Apple Inc’s Taiwanese contractor Pegatron Corp has started assembling the new iPhone 14 in India, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The report comes as relentless controls and ad hoc lockdowns across China, where the majority of Apple’s iPhones are made, have hampered economic growth and taken a heavy psychological and financial toll on residents and businesses.
Meanwhile, Foxxconn, formerly Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, began production of the iPhone 14 in India in September, making Pegatron the second-largest producer of the model in India, the Bloomberg report added.
All of Apple’s largest Taiwanese suppliers, Foxconn, Pegatron and Wistron Corp, have accelerated iPhone assembly in India, spurred by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s financial incentive package, Bloomberg said.
India and other countries such as Mexico and Vietnam are becoming increasingly important for contract manufacturers supplying American brands amid COVID-related lockdowns in China and simmering tensions between Washington and Beijing.
China on Wednesday ordered an industrial park in the city of Zhengzhou that houses a Foxconn-owned iPhone factory to enter a seven-day lockdown.
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Earlier this week, market research firm TrendForce said it had slashed its forecast for iPhone shipments for the fourth quarter to 2-3 million units from 80 million previously, due to unrest at the Zhengzhou plant, adding that its investigation of the situation revealed that the plant’s capacity utilization rate was now around 70%.
Pegatron declined to comment, while an Apple spokesperson did not immediately respond to a query from Reuters.
