{"id":39791,"date":"2025-05-16T11:36:43","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T11:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/16\/trump-wants-apple-to-shift-iphone-production-from-india-to-the-us-heres-what-it-means\/"},"modified":"2025-05-16T11:36:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T11:36:43","slug":"trump-wants-apple-to-shift-iphone-production-from-india-to-the-us-heres-what-it-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/16\/trump-wants-apple-to-shift-iphone-production-from-india-to-the-us-heres-what-it-means\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump wants Apple to shift iPhone production from India to the US: here\u2019s what it means"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Amid US President Donald Trump\u2019s criticism of Apple\u2019s reported decision to shift a substantial portion of its iPhone production for the American market from China to India rather than the United States, experts have cautioned that relocating production to the US would be economically unfeasible\u2014ultimately leaving the company worse off, even though India would lose out on jobs.<\/p>\n

Speaking at an event in Qatar on Thursday, Trump revealed he had confronted Apple CEO Tim Cook, calling the decision a disappointment given Apple\u2019s recent commitment to invest $500 billion in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI told him: \u2018Tim, you\u2019re my friend. You\u2019re coming here with 500 billion but now you\u2019re building all over India. I don\u2019t want you building in India.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump said that Apple had long enjoyed favourable treatment in the US despite its substantial manufacturing base in China and added that the time had come for the company to build in the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to Tim \u2026 we\u2019ve treated you really good, we\u2019ve put up with all the plants that you\u2019ve built in\u00a0China\u00a0for years, now you got to build [for] us,\u201d Trump said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not interested in you building in India, India can take care of themselves … we want you to build here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump also said Apple\u00a0was \u201cgoing to be upping their production in the United States\u201d, although he did not provide further details to back up the claim.<\/p>\n

US assembly would result in a 13-fold increase in labour costs<\/h2>\n

While Trump\u2019s remarks have underscored a push to onshore more manufacturing, experts have highlighted the economic impracticality of such a move. <\/p>\n

Ajay Srivastava, founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), said Apple stands to lose significantly more than India if it shifts assembly to the US due to steep increases in labour and operational costs.<\/p>\n

Relocating assembly to the US would result in a 13-fold increase in labour costs\u2014from $290 per month per worker in India to around $2,900 under US minimum wage norms. <\/p>\n

This alone would raise the per-unit assembly cost from $30 to $390, slashing Apple\u2019s profit per device from $450 to just $60, unless prices are raised.<\/p>\n

Industry estimates suggest that building iPhones in the US could push their retail price to nearly $3,000, a far cry from the current $1,000 price tag.<\/p>\n

“A lot better thought would prevail both in the Apple company and the US administration. They would realise the following facts. First, if they decide to manufacture in the USA as compared to China, India, or Vietnam, a USD 1,000 iPhone would cost USD 3,000,” Prashant Girbane, Director General of the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA), said<\/p>\n

\n

Are American consumers willing to pay $3,000 for that iPhone?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

India earns less than 3% of the total value but will lose out on jobs<\/h2>\n

The gains India makes from assembling iPhones are limited in terms of value addition. <\/p>\n

While each iPhone made and exported from India brings in approximately $30, much of it is offset through subsidies under India\u2019s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, and tariff reductions on key smartphone components\u2014often done at Apple\u2019s behest.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor every iPhone sold at $1,000 in the US, India’s share is less than $30. Yet, in trade data, the full $7 billion export value adds to the US trade deficit,\u201d Srivastava noted.<\/p>\n

$30 is less than 3% of the total value, despite being key locations for final assembly.<\/p>\n

Still, the final assembly work done in India creates much-needed jobs, with around 60,000 workers currently employed in Apple\u2019s local supply chain. <\/p>\n

In China, about 300,000 workers are involved in similar operations. India\u2019s role, while low in value capture, is significant for employment and skills development.<\/p>\n

If Apple does shift assembly away from India, Srivastava believes it could serve as a wake-up call for the country to move beyond \u201cshallow assembly lines\u201d and invest in higher-value areas such as semiconductors, batteries, and display technologies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe exit could push India to stop depending on final assembly and start building its own upstream ecosystem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

What to make of Trump’s comments?<\/h2>\n

Apple\u2019s global supply chain remains heavily China-dependent. <\/p>\n

Currently, about 85% of iPhones are made in China, with India accounting for roughly 15%. <\/p>\n

Analysts believe Trump\u2019s comments may be aimed at exerting pressure on India in ongoing trade negotiations. Some experts also said Apple is unlikely to scale back its India plans. <\/p>\n

NK Goyal, Chairman of the Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association (TEMA), dismissed Trump\u2019s comments as premature and noted that Apple had exported over $22 billion worth of iPhones from India in the last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cApple already has three factories in India and is planning two more. If it moves out of India, it will suffer losses due to shifting global tariffs and supply chain uncertainties,\u201d Goyal said. <\/p>\n

He believes Apple will continue using India as a key manufacturing base.<\/p>\n

Supporting this, Jaideep Ghosh, former partner at KPMG, said that iPhones worth Rs 1.75 lakh crore were made in India in FY 2025, up from Rs 1.2 lakh crore the previous year. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Apple ecosystem is becoming more important for India,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Shifting not from the US, but from China<\/h2>\n

Industry experts also clarified that the manufacturing shift is not from the US to India, but from China to India\u2014a move aligned with the broader geopolitical goal of diversifying supply chains away from Chinese dependence.<\/p>\n

Girbane added, \u201cThe jobs and manufacturing are not moving away from the US to India; they are moving from China to India. That helps American companies and consumers by protecting them from dependence on a single nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Trump wants Apple to shift iPhone production from India to the US: here\u2019s what it means<\/a> appeared first on Invezz<\/a><\/p>\n

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Amid US President Donald Trump\u2019s criticism of Apple\u2019s reported decision to shift a substantial portion of its iPhone production for the American market from China to India rather than the United States, experts have cautioned that relocating production to the US would be economically unfeasible\u2014ultimately leaving the company worse off, even though India would lose <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39792,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-39791","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-investing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}