Apple set to boost production and investments in India and Vietnam

Apple is diversifying its operations away from China by working with assembly and component manufacturing partners in India, Thailand, Malaysia and elsewhere.

Conglomerate Tata Group plans to build one of India’s biggest iPhone assembly plants, tapping Apple’s ambitions to increase manufacturing in the South Asian country.

Tata wants to construct the factory in Hosur in the southern Tamil Nadu state, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The facility will likely have about 20 assembly lines and employ 50,000 workers within two years, according to the people, who declined to be named, discussing unannounced plans. The goal is for the site to be operational in 12 to 18 months.

The plant would bolster Apple’s efforts to localise its supply chain and strengthen its partnership with Tata, which already has an iPhone factory it acquired from Wistron in the neighbouring Karnataka state. 

Apple is diversifying its operations away from China by working with assembly and component manufacturing partners in India, Thailand, Malaysia and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Apple is allocating product development resources for iPad to Vietnam, Nikkei reported on Friday, citing sources briefed on the matter.

Apple is working with China's Byd, a key iPad assembler, to move new product introduction (NPI) resources to Vietnam, the report said, adding this is the first time the company has shifted NPI resources to Vietnam for such a core device.

• Bloomberg and Reuters