As Apple Inc mulls shifting a significant portion of its operation from China to India, a high-level delegation from Tamil Nadu on Thursday met with the top management of Foxconn, one of the largest suppliers of the US-based electronics giant, to invest more in the state.
The delegation led by Additional Chief Secretary (Industries) S Krishnan and Pooja Kulkarni, MD & CEO, Guidance Tamil Nadu met Young Liu, CEO and Chairman of Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital city.
Highly-placed sources told DH that the government officials invited Foxconn to consider Tamil Nadu for their electric vehicles (EV) plans apart from expanding its facilities and investments in electronics, a significant portion of which is assembling iPhones.
Foxconn has been assembling Apple iPhones at its massive facility in Sriperumbudur, 50 km from Chennai, since 2020 after the Covid-19 outbreak in China. The facility currently manufactures high-end Apple phones, including the latest flagship iPhone 14, which is shipped to both domestic and global markets.
“Foxconn has been doing business in Tamil Nadu for over a decade now. And they know the investment climate and the kind of support that the state government has always extended. Since we hear that Foxconn’s client (read Apple) might shift a portion of its operation to India from China, we wanted to grab the opportunity,” a source in the know told DH.
For the record, the government said Krishnan and Kulkarni expressed appreciation for Foxconn's “longstanding investments” in Tamil Nadu and elaborately discussed the Taiwanese firm’s plans for new ventures and investments, especially in emerging sectors. The delegation also offered the government's complete support to the company in the state, it said.
The meeting comes amid reports that Apple has asked Foxconn to expand its facilities in India and Tamil Nadu believes Foxconn will choose the state for any future investments due to its “previous track record.”
“We have a good rapport with Foxconn and we made a formal request on Thursday to invest more in the state,” another source said.
Foxconn has been expanding its operations in Sriperumbudur – its fourth state-of-the-art factory is ready and functioning now – for the past few years. Apart from assembling iPhones, Foxconn also manufactures mobiles and accessories of different brands at its Sriperumbudur plants.
“We are not just focussing on electronics. We also want Foxconn to choose TN for its EV plans. TN is the happening place for EV and the delegation explained that to the Foxconn Management. We hope Foxconn will reach out to us very soon,” the second source said.
Besides Foxconn, Apple’s another major contract manufacturer, Pegatron, also assembles iPhones at its brand-new facility in Singaperumalkovil near Chennai.