More ‘Made in India’ iPhones likely as Pegatron okays $150 million investment in India

According to a report by the Economic Times, Pegatron has committed to invest an initial amount of $150 million to build its own manufacturing facility in India. Pegatron, in fact, has already registered a subsidiary company in the southern Indian city of Chennai and is reportedly in talks with various state governments for land acquisition. If everything falls into place, Pegatron’s new iPhone manufacturing plant in India will be up and running by the end of 2021 or early 2022. It is estimated that Pegatron will manufacture iPhone’s worth more than $540 million in the first year of the plant’s existence. 

What is interesting about this development is its timing. Pegatron’s Chinese operations have been under the scanner by Apple it was reportedly found that Pegatron had violated several labour laws that involved student workers. Apple reportedly has also decided to freeze all new business with Pegatron until the situation is addressed. However, Pegatron’s Indian operations shall not fall under the purview of this ‘freeze’, the report indicates.

It is also pertinent to note that Pegatron is the last of the three major Apple assemblers to make it to India. Pegatron’s rivals Foxconn and Wistron have already entered the India market and the latter, until recently, exclusively made iPhone models sold for the Indian market. As of today, however, Wistron makes iPhone models that are sold across the world. You can easily identify these handsets by looking at the ‘Assembled in India’ badge. Foxconn’s India operations, however, isn’t Apple-centric and it makes handsets for several other manufacturers from its plant in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh. 

As for Pegatron’s first iPhone factory, it is highly likely that this plant will come up in the Indian state of Tami Nadu.

Source: Economic Times