Indian factory began to assemble iPhone15 foreign media: difficult to shake China's manufacturing status
US media recently revealed that Indian factories have begun to produce Apple's latest mobile phones. This means that the time lag between China and India to mass-produce Apple's latest mobile phone is shrinking. However, the industry pointed out that China's dominance in the global supply chain of technology products will not be shaken.
According to Bloomberg, the factory in India of Hon Hai Group, the world's largest electronics foundry, has begun assembling Apple's latest smartphone, the iPhone 15, which will be officially released in September.
India's One World News Channel:
It seems that Apple really attaches importance to India this time, so the time difference between mass production in India and mass production in China will be further shortened.
Apple began producing older models of phones in India in 2017; In September 2022, Hon Hai launched the production of the iPhone 14 in India, which is the first time in India to produce Apple's latest model phone. At that time, the difference between China and India in mass production time was about two months. US media said that this year will be the closest China and India in terms of mass production time since the launch of the iPhone, only a few weeks apart.
India's manufacturing industry relies heavily on imports of key components from China
However, US media reminded that how many iPhone 15 mobile phones India can eventually produce depends largely on whether it can ensure a sufficient number of components, the vast majority of which need to be imported from China.
In 2022, China-India import and export trade reached a record high of US$136 billion, of which China's surplus in goods trade with India was US$101 billion. Indian media analysis, China's dominance in the supply chain means that Indian factories must first import a large number of key raw materials and components from China in order to produce complete products, resulting in an expansion of the Sino-Indian trade surplus.
Technology: India is unlikely to become a global manufacturing hub like China
Data shows that in 2022, Hon Hai Group's revenue in the Indian market will be US$10 billion, accounting for less than 5% of its total global revenue; Hon Hai employs 1 million people worldwide, including 50,000 in India. A Hon Hai executive asserted that India cannot become a global hub for manufacturing technology products like China.
In recent years, the US government has decentralized the supply chain layout in the name of so-called "de-risk", which is essentially promoting "de-Chinaization" in the economic, trade and scientific and technological fields. And in the process, India has been touted as an ideal partner by the United States, which has become India's second largest source of foreign investment in 2022. In June this year, during Indian Prime Minister Modi's visit to the United States, a number of American chip companies announced investment in India.
Indian governments at all levels have also introduced a series of preferential measures to attract technology companies to set up factories. Harry Harran, JPMorgan's head of research in charge of the Asia-Pacific science and technology sector, believes that in the future, multinational companies may add 1-2 production bases outside China for different products, but there will be no second super-large core supplier.
Source: CCTV4 "Asia Today"