Apple would have chartered freight flights to transport iPhones from its Indian manufacturing plants to the United States to try to beat Donald Trump’s prices.
The technological company has piloted 600 tonnes of iphones, or up to 1.5 million handsets in the United States from India since March after accelerating production in its factories in the country, according to Reuters.
Trump’s threatened tariffs of 26% on Indian imports are suspended for about three months after the American president called a 90 -day break, but he announced that prices on Chinese goods – where Apple assembles most of its iPhones – will be subject to a 125% sample.
A familiar source with planning behind the move told Reuters Apple “wanted to beat the price”. India must always pay import taxes under Trump measures, but at the reduced rate of 10%.
Analysts have warned that iPhone prices could increase after the United States has imposed its highest import rate from China, the UBS investment bank estimating an iPhone 16 Pro Max with 256 GB of storage could increase the price of more than two-thirds, compared to $ 1,199 (£ 925) to almost $ 2,000 if the apple passes over a substantial part of the price costs.
Reuters said that Apple had targeted a 20% increase in production in iPhone factories in India. He did so by increasing the number of workers and temporarily extending operations to the largest factory of Foxconn India in Chennai on Sundays.
The Chennai factory produced 20m iPhones last year, including the latest iPhone 15 and 16 models. Apple has three factories in India operated by Foxconn and Tata.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Apple was planning to send more iphones to the United States from India as a “short-term stop” while the company was trying to obtain an exemption from China prices. If Apple diverted all of India’s manufacturing iphones to the United States, this would represent around 50% of American demand this year, according to the Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan.
Analysts have warned that moving iPhone production in the United States would be prohibitive due to factors such as the cost of paying hundreds of thousands of workers. Wedbush Securities analysts, an American financial service company, said that an iPhone manufactured in the United States would cost $ 3,500.
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“If consumers want an iphone of $ 3,500, we should make them in New Jersey or Texas or another State,” Dan Ives, Wedbush analyst, in a note to investors this week.
Apple was contacted to comment.
