Apple begins iPhone 13 production in India plant

Apple is testing out a new expansion in its iPhone 13 production near Chennai, India, in a trial contract with a Foxconn plant located in the area.

Apple first contracted the Foxconn plant to produce the iPhone 12 5G, but recently a long-winded bout of food poisoning and ongoing protests brought about a full shutdown of the plant (ordered by Foxconn itself), negatively impacting iPhone 12 5G production in the country.

However, neither the series of unfortunate events nor the temporary closure seems to have fazed Apple in the least, the company has already begun a test trial of iPhone 13 production in the same Foxconn plant.

If all goes to plan, Apple plans to not only use this new plant to provide a domestic supply of the latest iPhone flagship series but will also begin exporting units internationally by February of next year.

Even Apple has been affected by the ongoing global chip supply shortage around the world, causing some frustratingly long lead times on iPhone 13 series orders across the board—but that clearly isn’t stopping the company from continuing to expand its manufacturing facilities around the world.

If the stint with the Foxconn plant in Chennai works out, Apple reports that it should significantly improve the global supply of the iPhone 13, as about 20-30% of iPhone production in India in general (and not just in the Chennai plant) ends up being exported internationally.

Although iPhone sales in India have been favoring the slightly older iPhone 12 and iPhone 11 models, the iPhone 13 demand has also already proved greater than the current supply has been able to cover within the country.

With the new domestic Foxconn plant contracted by Apple, Market tracker IDC India’s research director Navkendar Singh has reported that this should finally help cover local demand in India more efficiently, besides improving the global supply:

“A lot of local production scaling up will depend on component availability,” he said. “The local production of iPhone 13 in India may ease a bit the low supplies in the country.”