Japanese electronics multinational TDK Corporation has announced it will produce lithium-ion battery cells for Apple iPhones in India, as reports Reuters.
The news provides another boost to the Indian economy, particularly for the state of Haryana, with a factory to be set up in Manesar.
It has been described as a “another big win” for Prime Minister Narendra Modi by State Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, with thousands of new jobs mooted.
Another big win for PM @narendramodi ji's visionary PLI scheme in shifting the mobile manufacturing ecosystem to India.
TDK, a leading supplier of cells to Apple, is setting up a 180-acre facility in Manesar, Haryana to build cells for batteries which will be used in the… pic.twitter.com/hyJAf6yeqO
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳(Modiyude Kutumbam) (@Rajeev_GoI) December 4, 2023
The battery cells manufactured at the Indian facility will then be supplied to Apple’s lithium-ion assembler Sunwoda Electronics as part of the overall process of creating iPhone products.
TDK joins Apple in India
TDK’s move comes as Apple seeks to switch much of its activity away from China, with India selected as the key location to drive fresh growth and expansion – finding a fit under PM Modi’s PLI scheme.
Fourteen suppliers are currently in place within India for Apple, which has had their iPhones assembled there since 2017 and in part of this latest expansion, the Tata Group will be involved in the production of the parts.
TDK will now put in place, a top-class manufacturing facility in Manesar which could create as many as 10,000 jobs according to early projections and relayed by Chandrasekhar in his post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Apple reportedly plans to increase production in India to around $40 billion – a more than five-fold increase from its current $7 billion — in the next four to five years.
For the first time, Apple has outpaced Samsung in smartphone export volumes from India, shipping 49% of India’s 12 million total shipments, against 45% for Samsung as of the June quarter.
At the end of November another major US technology firm, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), opened its largest global design center in Bengaluru, often nicknamed India’s Silicon Valley.
The world’s most populous country looks set for explosive tech sector growth in the next decade thanks to an abundance of skilled and English-speaking talent within the Asian country.
Image credit, Dids, pexels.com
