Pegatron’s India plant has nearly 10,000 employees, and the company manufactures iPhone 13 and 14 devices…reports Asian Lite News
Tata Group, which acquired Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Wistron’s India operations for $125 million in October last year, is now reportedly eyeing to acquire Pegatron’s iPhone manufacturing facility near Chennai, as Apple ramps up its presence in the country.
According to a Reuters report, citing sources, the Tata Group may hold a 65 per cent stake in a “joint venture” to operate the Pegatron plant, for which talks are in an “advanced stage”.
The company plans to operate the JV via its Tata Electronics unit, the report claimed.
Pegatron’s India plant has nearly 10,000 employees, and the company manufactures iPhone 13 and 14 devices.
Pegatron, Tata Group, or Apple did not immediately comment on the report.
Reports surfaced in December last year that the Tata Group is planning to build one of India’s largest iPhone assembly plants in Tamil Nadu’s Hosur. The facility is expected to feature around 20 assembly lines and employ 50,000 workers within two years. It is expected to be operational within 12 to 18 months.
Tata now operates the iPhone manufacturing plant in Karnataka, which it has purchased from Wistron.
Apple is aiming to manufacture more than 50 million iPhones in India per year, as it aims to shift some of the production out from China.
A slew of initiatives by the government have fuelled the growth of manufacturing facilities, with its Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for smartphone production, allowing Indian companies to compete with global electronics makers based in China. According to industry experts, India stands out as a potential hub for production amid escalating US-China tensions, owing to its substantial internal market and skilled labour force.
The Apple ecosystem employed over 150,000 people directly since the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme was approved in 2021, making it the country’s largest blue-collar job creator, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said on Monday.
About 3 lakh people have been employed indirectly, with a total of over 4 lakh new jobs, owing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s PLI policies which have been transformative, said the minister who is an NDA candidate from Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat.
“iPhone factories are set to hire more than 10,000 people directly in the peak June-September period,” he posted on X.
The FY24 production of iPhones exceeded Rs 1 lakh crore in February, with 70 per cent exports and a total market value of Rs 1.6 lakh crore.
“iOS app development now supports more than 1 million jobs. Apple has launched an education initiative on women’s health as part of its $50-million Supplier Employee Development Fund,” the Union Minister informed.
Apple’s revenue in India hit nearly Rs 50,000 crore in FY23, with sales increasing 48 per cent to Rs 49,321 crore and net profit rising 76 per cent to Rs 2,229 crore — fastest growth of net profit for Apple in India in the last five years.
India is close to achieving the target of Rs 20 lakh crore worth of mobile phone production in the last 10 years while crossing Rs 1.20 lakh crore worth phone exports in the current fiscal year (FY24) — a whopping 7,500 per cent increase in exports over a decade — top electronics industry body India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) said last month.
Driven by this export growth, mobile phones have now become India’s fifth largest export as an individual commodity.
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