Mumbai, India
With India accounting for an ever greater proportion of iPhone manufacturing, Apple and its suppliers are planning to build residential accommodation by the thousands.
India is becoming progressively more important to Apple as the company works to reduce its over-reliance on China, and Apple has already built new offices in the country. Now as Bloomberg reports that India now assembles one in seven iPhones, Apple is looking to build housing for staff.
The growth to one in seven iPhones means Indian production has doubled since the last fiscal year. It means India has produced $14 billion worth of iPhones, or approximately 14% of Apple’s overall production.
Apple has made no secret that it wants to expand in India, with reports that its intention is to be making 25% annually of all iPhones there by 2028. It’s part of a years-long effort by Apple and its suppliers to end or at least greatly reduce its dependence on China as its sole source of iPhones.
According to Bloomberg, the increase in Indian production involves all of Apple’s major suppliers. So Foxconn made an estimated 67% of India-made iPhones by the end of fiscal year in March 2024.
Pegatron reportedly produced around 17% of the iPhones in India, while the remainder were manufactured by Wistron.
It’s not clear how many people are now employed in making the iPhone in India, but local publication Business Standard says that Apple has directly created 150,000 new jobs there in the last two and a half years. It’s for these workers that new accommodation is being planned.
Business Standard reports that Indian government officials have revealed that the houses are coming from the country’s largest public/private partnership. Apple suppliers Foxconn, Tata, and Salcomp are developing what’s said to be over 78,000 units.
It’s not known how many workers will be housed in the units. But government officials said that the housing was specifically being built for women employees who face lengthy commutes to work.
They also said that the majority of women employees were currently living in rented accommodation and that this raised unspecified security concerns.
It’s not the first time that Apple and its suppliers or partners have been involved in housing. However, the chief example of this is in California, where by July 2023, Apple had spent $1.5 billion to help relieve the state’s housing crisis.
