Apple’s India Bet Pays Off: US iPhone Imports Surge Despite Trump Tariffs, China Pressures

Amid pressure from US President Donald Trump, rising tariffs, and China’s reported recall of engineers, India’s iPhone exports surged 53% year-on-year to 23.9 million units in the first six months of 2025, according to market research firm Canalys. The country, which produces Apple’s flagship product at Foxconn and Tata Electronics facilities, had exported only 15.6 million iPhones during H1 2024.

Notably, 78% of these smartphones were shipped to the United States, as Apple reportedly aimed to avoid the so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs imposed from April 2. During the same period last year, the US accounted for just over 50% of India’s iPhone exports.

“The existing tariffs that apply to Apple today are based on the product's country of origin, as you alluded to. For the June quarter, we expect the majority of iPhones sold in the US to have India as their country of origin, while Vietnam will be the source for almost all iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, and AirPods sold in the US. China will continue to be the country of origin for the vast majority of product sales outside the US,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts during the company’s Q2 earnings call on May 30.

Canalys data also showed that iPhone exports from India to the UAE, which was the third-largest importer with an 8% share in H1 2024, rose to 10% in H1 2025. Meanwhile, the UK’s share dropped from 7% to 2%, and the Czech Republic fell from 8% to 2%. Italy, Japan, and the Netherlands each held a 2–4% export share.

“I didn’t expect the ramp-up to happen so quickly,” said Sanyam Chaurasia, Principal Analyst at Canalys, who first shared the data surge in a LinkedIn post last week.

According to Chaurasia, a large portion of the exports are now coming from Tata Electronics' facilities.

“Foxconn led with over half the volume, while the Tata Group now accounts for nearly 4 in 10 iPhones exported from India. This reflects improving yield rates, line maturity, and Apple’s growing confidence in India as a core manufacturing base,” he added.

Foxconn, operating under Bharat FIH Ltd in India, maintains manufacturing plants across at least three states, the oldest being in Sriperumbudur and Oragadam in Tamil Nadu. It is also constructing a 13-million sq ft facility—Project Elephant—near Devanahalli in Karnataka, where it reportedly aims to produce 25–30 million iPhones annually. Foxconn also operates in Telangana’s Kongara Kalan Park, where it manufactures AirPods. The company now plans to enter semiconductor manufacturing in partnership with HCLTech, with a proposed plant in Jewar, Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, Tata Electronics also runs three iPhone assembly units. It launched a greenfield EMS facility in 2021, acquired Wistron’s operations in Karnataka in 2024 (now branded Tata Electronics Systems Solutions, or TESS), and in January 2025 acquired a 60% stake in Pegatron’s India operations, including its Chennai-based iPhone assembly plant.

Exact production capacities of these plants aren’t public, but earlier reports suggest that Apple’s exports from India between April and August 2024 reached $5 billion—over 50% higher than the same period in the previous year, buoyed by PLI scheme incentives.

According to earlier Canalys analysis, Tata has become Apple’s fastest-growing supplier, contributing 37% of India’s iPhone exports (up from 13% in 2024), due to its integration of Wistron’s plant, expansion in Hosur, and a robust local ecosystem. Foxconn still leads with a 52% share, but Tata’s meteoric rise signals a major shift in Apple’s India-centric supply chain strategy.

iPhone Exports Defy Trump’s Tariff Threats

The surge in iPhone exports has come despite repeated warnings from President Donald Trump, who has pushed Apple to bring production back to the US.

“I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect the iPhones sold in the United States of America to be manufactured and built in the United States—not India or anyplace else. If that is not the case, a tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the US. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump wrote on Truth Social in May.

Coinciding with this threat, Foxconn announced a $1.48 billion investment into its Indian unit, Yuzhan Technology (India) Pvt Ltd, via its Singapore-based arm to boost iPhone production.

Earlier reports indicate Apple plans to manufacture around 60 million iPhones in India in FY2025—enough to cover nearly 90% of the iPhones sold in the US. Apple sold 75.9 million iPhones in the US in 2024, according to an S&P Global analysis.

iPhone 17 Production Begins

Based on June’s customs data, Chaurasia said that Apple has already started production of the upcoming iPhone 17 in India.

“The components observed in June were primarily for iPhone 17 production. Product descriptions in import data suggest that testing has begun—and possibly initial stages of manufacturing too. We’ll need to examine July’s data to understand shifts in display components, PCBA, and other critical imports,” he said.

Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 17 series in early September.

China’s Recall of Foxconn Engineers

Recent reports claim that China instructed Foxconn to recall engineers from its India plants—potentially disrupting India’s iPhone production scale-up. While reports suggest the company has brought in Taiwanese and other technical teams to fill the void left by around 300 Chinese workers, Chaurasia warned of challenges.

“It’s not easy to manage that transition—especially the training and education needed for complex device production. These devices get more sophisticated every year, which adds to the complexity. But I assume Apple anticipated this and has planned accordingly,” he said.