Apple’s iPhones have propelled smartphones into the top-five most exported commodities from India in the fiscal that ended in March this year.
India’s smartphone exports nearly doubled to $10.9 billion during the year from $5.4 billion the year before that, according to data from India’s commerce ministry.
And iPhone handsets accounted for half of those smartphones, followed by Samsung, Business Standard reported today (June 12). In the last financial year, when Apple’s figure stood at only 24%, India’s overall smartphone exports were in the ninth position.
In the financial year 203, the top-four commodities exported from India included automotive fuels, aviation fuel, motor gasoline, and diamonds for non-industrial use, the newspaper reported.
India’s efforts to lure big smartphone companies
India’s $6.6-billion financial program to boost local smartphone manufacturing under the production-linked incentive scheme has attracted global majors. The government’s promotional program came at a time when China’s tech crackdown and the covid-19-linked shutdowns compelled companies to shift their production base to alternative hubs.
This boosted India’s potential, setting it up to replace Vietnam and become the world’s second-largest mobile phone exporter after China, the daily reported.
Chinese smartphone makers Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and OnePlus, also assemble many of their handsets in India.
Apple’s contract manufacturing partners Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron, had also set up units in India. However, Taiwan-based Wistron has wound up its operations, Quartz reported last month.
“India now accounts for 5% of total iPhone production, up from less than 1% in 2020,” The Economic Times reported in April.
Apple also opened its first retail stores in India this year. It plans to expand its manufacturing capabilities in India to produce 25% of all iPhones by 2025.