Apple Supplier Pegatron in Talks With Tata Group to Sell Its iPhone Plant

Manufacturing of the globally popular iPhone is increasing in India. Apple’s supplier Pegatron is preparing to sell its iPhone manufacturing plant in the country to Tata Group. Negotiations for this are in the final stages. Under this deal, Tata Group plans to hold at least 65 percent stake in the joint venture that operates this plant near Chennai in Tamil Nadu.

A source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that Tata Group It will operate this joint venture through its unit Tata Electronics. This plant has about 10,000 workers and manufactures about 5 million iPhones annually. Taiwan’s Pegatron sold its iPhone manufacturing plant in China to Luxshare last year for about $290 million. Tata Group and Pegatron did not respond to emails sent for comment. Due to increasing tension between the US and China, Apple has planned to diversify its supply chain out of China.

Tata Group already has an iPhone assembly plant in Karnataka. Last year, this plant was purchased from Taiwan’s Wistron. Apart from this, Tata Group is building another plant in Hosur, Tamil Nadu. Pegatron can be its joint venture partner in this. Apple has employed more than 1.5 lakh people in India after participating in the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. Most of these people are between 19 and 24 years of age. In the last few years, the company’s sales and manufacturing have grown rapidly in the country.

Recently, a media report quoted government officials and experts as saying that about three lakh other people have got indirect employment through companies taking benefits from the PLI scheme. In this report, an official has been quoted as saying, “More than four lakh jobs (direct and indirect) are expected to be created in Apple’s ecosystem in the last 32 months.” Despite increasing challenges in big markets like America and China, Apple has increased its focus on India, the world’s second largest smartphone market. The company started manufacturing iPhones in the country in 2017.

(This news has not been edited by the NDTV team. It has been published directly from the Syndicate feed.)