Report: Apple flies in 600 tons of iPhones from India due to US tariffs
Air traffic is brisk ahead of the Trump administration's tough tariffs. For Apple, this apparently affected not only China, but also India.
Indian flag: The subcontinent is a new important location for Apple.
(Image: siam.pukkato/Shutterstock.com)
It was a kind of capitalist airlift: Before the introduction of new US tariffs on goods from all over the world – some of which have since been withdrawn – Apple tried to fly as many devices as possible into the USA. Further details of the operation have now emerged. According to the news agency Reuters, 600 tons of iPhones are said to have been imported from India alone, where the tariff was initially "only" supposed to be 26 percent. At least 1.5 million smartphone units are said to have been involved.
According to the report, Apple had previously stepped up production to obtain as many units as possible from the factories. The tariffs have therefore boosted the economy in India, at least in the short term, and worsened the US trade balance.
Apple's motto: "Beat the tariffs"
Clearance at Chennai airport in the state of Tamil Nadu, where an important iPhone factory is located, has been accelerated to just six hours instead of the usual 30. Apple has thus replicated a model that the company already uses at airports in China to increase the speed of exports – the so-called "green corridor". Around "six cargo jets", each carrying 100 tons of cargo, have taken off since March, at least one this week. If you take the iPhone 14, for example, which weighs 350 grams, the aforementioned 600 tons would amount to 1.5 million devices, Reuters – calculates, adding the charging cable and packaging.
Nevertheless, these quantities of devices are a drop in the ocean. Apple produces and sells over 200 million iPhones a year, most of which come from China; around 15 percent come from India. Apple was once primarily concerned with selling "Indian" iPhones locally or elsewhere in Asia, but due to the current situation, around a fifth of all iPhones sold in the USA are now said to come from India.
The product series is currently in an intermediate phase. The entry-level model iPhone 16e was last launched in spring. Things will get exciting again in the fall when the iPhone 17 generation is released.
Videos by heise
Tariffs suspended, but not for China
The Trump administration recently decided to suspend the new tariffs, which applied to virtually every country in the world except Russia and North Korea, for 90 days. However, the USA is retaining new tariffs for Canada and Mexico. China received even higher tariffs of up to 155 percent. The People's Republic has introduced counter-tariffs on US products. The capital markets have been on a rollercoaster since the announcement of the tariffs.
As a result, iPhone production in India is said to have been increased again recently. Teams at Foxconn India are now also working on Sundays, and a total of 20 percent more cell phones are said to be leaving the factories. Foxconn and Tata, the two manufacturers on the subcontinent, now operate three factories there. Setting them up was not easy; China has tried to prevent the export of knowledge and machinery to India.
Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt
Mit Ihrer Zustimmung wird hier ein externer Preisvergleich (heise Preisvergleich) geladen.
Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen (heise Preisvergleich) übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
(bsc)
