Nearly all of the iPhones exported by Foxconn from India went to the United States between March and May, customs knowledge confirmed, far above the 2024 common of fifty p.c and a transparent signal of Apple’s efforts to bypass excessive US tariffs imposed on China.
The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the primary time, present Apple has realigned its India exports to virtually completely serve the US market, when beforehand the gadgets have been extra broadly distributed to international locations together with the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Britain.
During March-May, Foxconn exported iPhones value $3.2 billion (roughly Rs. 27,547 crore) from India, with a median 97 p.c shipped to the United States, in comparison with a 2024 common of fifty.3 p.c, in accordance with commercially out there customs knowledge seen by Reuters.
India iPhone shipments by Foxconn to the United States in May 2025 have been value practically $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,608 crore), the second-highest ever after the file $1.3 billion (roughly Rs. 11,191 crore) value of gadgets shipped in March, the info confirmed.
Apple declined to remark, whereas Foxconn didn’t reply to a Reuters request for remark.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday mentioned China will face 55 p.c tariffs after the 2 international locations agreed on a plan, topic to each leaders’ approval, to ease levies that had reached triple digits.
India is topic, like most US buying and selling companions, to a baseline 10 p.c tariff and is attempting to barter an settlement to avert a 26 p.c “reciprocal” levy that Trump introduced after which paused in April.
Apple’s elevated manufacturing in India drew a powerful rebuke from Trump in May. “We are not interested in you building in India, India can take care of themselves, they are doing very well, we want you to build here,” Trump recalled telling CEO Tim Cook.
In the primary 5 months of this 12 months, Foxconn has already despatched iPhones value $4.4 billion (roughly Rs. 37,878 crore) to the US from India, in comparison with $3.7 billion (roughly Rs. 31,844 crore) in the entire of 2024.
Apple has been taking steps to hurry up manufacturing from India to bypass tariffs, which might make telephones shipped from China to the US way more costly. In March, it chartered planes to move iPhone 13, 14, 16 and 16e fashions value roughly $2 billion (roughly Rs. 17,213 crore) to the United States.
Apple has additionally lobbied Indian airport authorities to chop the time wanted to clear customs at Chennai airport within the southern state of Tamil Nadu from 30 hours to 6 hours, Reuters has reported. The airport is a key hub for iPhone exports.
“We expect made-in-India iPhones to account for 25 percent to 30 percent of global iPhone shipments in 2025, as compared to 18 percent in 2024,” mentioned Prachir Singh, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research.
Tata Electronics, the opposite smaller Apple iPhone provider in India, on common shipped practically 86 p.c of its iPhone manufacturing to the US throughout March and April, customs knowledge confirmed. Its May knowledge was not out there.
The firm, a part of India’s Tata Group, began exporting iPhones solely in July 2024, and solely 52 p.c of its shipments went to US throughout 2024, the info confirmed.
Tata declined to touch upon the numbers.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has in recent times promoted India as a smartphone manufacturing hub, however excessive duties on importing cell phone parts in comparison with many different international locations means it’s nonetheless costly to supply the gadgets in India.
Apple has traditionally offered greater than 60 million iPhones within the US annually, with roughly 80 p.c made in China.
© Thomson Reuters 2025
(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
