Apple supplier Foxconn to invest $1B in India, sources say

&gt; With India’s labour cheaper compared with China, and the gradual expansion of its supplier base here, Apple will be able to use the country as an export hub<p>While there are negatives, I appreciate how globalization of manufacturing helps lift poorer economies (albeit it slowly and not always agreeing with the politics of the newly-built middle classes). One might expect manufacturing in mid-Africa in two decades.

A lot of people have talked about the weakness in India, but have forgotten the strengths.<p>Outside China, India is one of the largest single market<p>The long term growth rate is expected to be good<p>There is a countrywide GST (similar to VAT)<p>Uber, Amazon, Google are relatively free to be in the market, this is more liberal than in many EU countries<p>Add to that the younger population, surplus labour, tightening global immigration<p>More over India is a new unwritten partner with US, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea - there is plenty of give and take. India has concluded multi billion dollar defence deals with the US.<p>India has made a huge push in infrastructure investments, and building several industrial corridors<p>India has a strategic location in the ocean<p>India is the only big power in the region that can kick the CCP&#x27;s ass if it has to, and the Chinese have been testing it out several times<p>Since the coronavirus, the state of UP (200 million population) has relaxed all labour laws that was preventing employment generation and investment, has aggregated government land for new industrial setup, twice the size of Luxembourg.

I wonder if this will be the start of an Exodus of manufacturing away from China. Corporations are constantly under scrutiny with their brand messaging and signaling with respect to various conflicts involving China, Hong Kong and the unrest within the United States. India on the other hand, is a Democratic republic, might help alleviate some issues. If India plays its cards right, they may pave the way for a manufacturing revolution for their 1+ billion people. For better or worse, only time will tell.

After their disaster in Wisconsin I&#x27;m going to wait till they actually spend the money before considering it newsworthy.

If I were anyone relying on China right now I would diversify to other countries as fast as possible. Everyone should ask: what if I get cut off tomorrow? And have a strategy for that.

As we increase the offshore footprint for manufacturing of devices consumed by Americans, we set ourselves up for a future where our national interests are far away, hard to defend, and subject to the whims of foreign nations. This is a strategic error.<p>India seems like a good counterbalance to China -- it is, after all, an adversary of China in the region. But that could change in 10 years.<p>Geography is important. Instead of diversifying away from our own continent, we should use the power of our consumer demand to establish high-tech manufacturing facilities in the poorer&#x2F;cheaper reaches of our own continent.<p>We already saw the dangers of offshore production when COVID-19 hit and we were unable to provide basic necessities like patient masks and protective gowns. The lesson there is that far-away manufacturing is problematic when the global market experiences heavy shocks.

Serious question: Modern manufacturing, especially for things like electronics, is highly automated and increasingly so. That implies you don&#x27;t need a lot of labor to do it and what you do need is skilled labor anyway. Lower unskilled labor costs don&#x27;t seem like a huge advantage there. So what&#x27;s still keeping it in countries like China and India and not e.g. Minnesota, which would yield a PR advantage and lower transportation costs?<p>I can think of a few reasons in the nature of China devaluing their currency or other countries ignoring pollution, but these seem like illegitimate reasons. They&#x27;re not a true advantage of China or India, they&#x27;re perfidious regulatory arbitrage and a failure of US policy to punish cheating or impose the same environmental standards on all manufactured goods sold in the US regardless of country of origin.<p>So are those the only reasons (to which plausible yet unimplemented solutions exist), or is there something else we have to fix?

Foxconn is getting ahead of the curve here. They know its going to happen and so its better they do it and keep the client than letting others get in to the game.<p>Indian consulting companies use the same strategy. They have offices all over the world and actively go to places where the wages are low and set up shop themselves.

Someone help me understand this. If China and India get into a conflict, doesn&#x27;t that mean each side would be trying to get the other&#x27;s exports banned? Which means, effectively, Foxconn is handicapping itself?

Related:<p>&gt; The Information wrote on Thursday that at least one Apple supplier has been asked to ship iPhone SE components to a facility in India starting in July<p>&gt; Assembling iPhone SEs in India helps Apple to avoid a 20% tax on imported smartphones, and potentially to gain a greater foothold in the growing market. Apple earns just 2.2% of its global revenue in India<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thestreet.com&#x2F;investing&#x2F;apple-to-move-iphone-se-production-to-india" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thestreet.com&#x2F;investing&#x2F;apple-to-move-iphone-se-...</a>

Worth noting that Foxconn assembles iPhone XR in India. It also manufactures Xiaomi phones in Indian plant.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;goo.gl&#x2F;maps&#x2F;GDwxEKhaBEJSs7YR7" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;goo.gl&#x2F;maps&#x2F;GDwxEKhaBEJSs7YR7</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.business-standard.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;companies&#x2F;apple-starts-selling-iphone-xr-assembled-in-foxconn-s-chennai-unit-119102201132_1.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.business-standard.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;companies&#x2F;apple-st...</a>

I&#x27;m surprised big companies haven&#x27;t built up India to make it&#x27;s own type of Shenzhen there. Seems like a huge investment by any forward looking metric. They already outsource a lot of software development.

Wisconsin says, &quot;Hold my beer.&quot;

We just don&#x27;t have the infrastructure for this.<p>Too much red tape. I will believe it when I see it.

Would be interesting to see the politics surrounding this in light of the recent border conflict between India and China and the Indian government&#x27;s ban on 59 Chinese apps and government contracts to Chinese firms.

There&#x27;s a pent up demand in India for cheap iPhones. Most of the phones manufactured would be for domestic market. Local manufacturing would provide better pricing to compete with Android market in India.

somehow these global corps need to be held to a unified standard with regatds to environmental and human impact as these vary country by country.

in other news, suicide rate of India has sky rocketed.