By Sucheta Roy
India has now begun to export Apple products like Airpods and Macbooks to China and Vietnam for the first time. This development greatly shifts Apple’s global supply chain diversification strategy. The leading Apple suppliers in India, like Tata Electronics, Motherson Group, Aequs, and Jabil, have also started manufacturing and exporting critical electronic components.
As per the industry experts, this historic and strategic shift will give a substantial boost to India’s electronic sector. In the past, in the past two decades, India has been a net importer of electronic components and now the recent shift towards export marks a significant turnaround in the supply chain dynamics of India. Until now, the key components and other essential products were mostly imported from Vietnam and China.
Currently, Apple only manufactures iPhones in India, but now the US-based company is expected to expand its production in India very soon. In the coming years, “Made in India” Apple products will be exported to Vietnam and China, which will eventually strengthen India’s position in the global market.
Prediction of the experts say that India is on the right track to achieve a huge amount of $40 billion export target by 2031, and there is also a growing anticipation that the central government may introduce a $3 billion production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme which will be specifically made for component manufacturers. This project aims to further motivate local production and boost India’s electronic industry.
Recently, Apple has decided to increase the local value addition and expand its supply base in India as it goes with the larger goal of reducing dependency on China. The company has been gradually restructuring its supply chain, and now India is coming up as a very important and crucial player in the transformation.