The article first appeared in Financial times on April 9, 2025.
Apple has increased the number of flights carrying consignments of iPhones from India to the US following Donald Trump’s tariff blitz, as the tech giant grapples with one of the biggest threats to its business in years.
In the days since Trump’s “liberation day” announcement, at least 10 flights have taken off from Chennai International Airport, according to three Indian officials with knowledge of the matter.
Apple is relying on deepening its relationship with India to help it counter the immediate impact of the US President’s aggressive China tariffs, after it failed to get a last-minute exemption from Washington’s 104 per cent levy on the country that came into effect on Wednesday.
Two Indian officials told the Financial Times that the US tech giant was looking at further investment into the country. “Apple is definitely thinking of doing more in India,” said one official. Apple declined to comment.
Apple has been one of Wall Street’s biggest casualties of the US president’s tariff blitz — losing about $700bn in market value since last week’s announcements — highlighting the dilemma the group faces, having built its business around advanced manufacturing in China.
Reserving India’s entire iPhone output for the US would allow it to cover some 30mn of the 50mn-plus iPhones it ships to the US each year, according to Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan.
“I do think they have done some of that work to mitigate some of the impact in the very near term, but it’s obviously not a sustainable kind of solution for any extended period of time,” Mohan said.
Apple has been quietly growing its business in India, particularly since the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on its China supply chains, but it still has about 80 per cent of its smartphone manufacturing in China, according to Counterpoint Research…
Read more at Financial Times
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