In these few years, India has improved so much in smartphone manufacturing that the name of this Asian continent has spread all over the world. But it seems that in the coming days, our country may set a new record in the production of iPhone as well. In fact, it was recently rumored that Pegatron, one of Apple’s suppliers, may hand over its iPhone manufacturing capabilities in India to the Tata Group. And once the deal between the two companies is finalised, Tata will hold a 65 per cent stake, even handing over Pegatron’s sole iPhone manufacturing factory in Chennai to the partner company.
According to a Reuters report, Taiwan-based company Pegatron will only provide technical support at its Chennai plant, while Tata will handle all operations through its Tata Electronics unit (TEPL) – making India’s ‘Made in India’ iPhones even bigger. All in all, this whole matter and the agreement is also supported by Apple. However, no official information has been released in this regard yet.
Pegatron makes 50 million iPhones a year
The Pegatron plant currently employs around 10,000 people and produces 5 million or 50 lakh iPhones every year. The company bought the factory for $290 million last year to compete with Luxshare. Now that Apple is trying to expand its supply chain outside of China, given the geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Washington, the takeover of Pegatron’s Chennai plant by Tata is likely to give iPhone production a new boost.
Tata already assembles the iPhone in India
However, this is not the first time that Tata will work with Apple iPhone after acquiring the Pegatron plant. The company already runs an iPhone assembly plant in the neighboring state of Karnataka, which it took over from Taiwan’s Wistron last year. Also, the Tata company is building another assembly plant at Hosur in Tamil Nadu where Pegatron, Tata may have as a partner.
The two organizations will sign a 6-month contract
It is heard that the contract between Tata and Pegatron for the factory may be finalized for six months. After that all the employees of Pegatron India will move to the joint venture unit. In fact, there is no doubt that Tata is going to be crucial to Apple’s growing India ambitions. Market analysts estimate that Tata, alone, will cover 20-25% of total iPhone shipments this year, up from 12-14% last year.
