A unit of Apple Inc.’s Taiwanese contract manufacturer Wistron Corp. has won approval from Karnataka to build a new assembly facility in the State, signalling a potential expansion of iPhone assembly work in India.
The Karnataka government has approved Wistron Infocomm Manufacturing India Pvt. Ltd.’s application for 43 acres of land, about 65 km from Bengaluru, according to a government document reviewed by Reuters.
Wistron will invest ₹680 crore ($105 million) to develop this land and manufacture smartphones, Internet of things (IoT) products and biotech devices, the document showed.
Wistron, in its proposal to the State government, said the new plant would create about 6,000 jobs.
“When discussions started, their [Wistron’s] requirement was 50-100 acres,” a senior government official said. “But we were not immediately able to provide all the land.” The official, who declined to be named as discussions were not public, added the State had assured Wistron of meeting the company’s land requirements. The expansion of manufacturing facility could mean a widening of Apple’s iPhone assembly in India as the U.S. tech giant has to pay steep duties on devices imported into the country.
Key market
Analysts see India — one of the world’s fastest-growing smartphone markets — as key to Apple’s ambitions for a bigger global market share as smartphone sales have slowed in more mature markets.
Wistron’s ICT Service Management Solutions unit currently assembles Apple’s low-cost iPhone SE model in Bengaluru.
The new site is located 50 km away from the Bengaluru International Airport.
