Hong Kong
CNN
—
Apple supplier Foxconn says it is looking for Indian partners to cooperate in areas such as chips and electric vehicles, as its chief executive wrapped up a visit to the country.
Taiwan’s Foxconn has been looking to expand its operations in the South Asian giant after suffering severe supply disruptions in China last year. The company recovered from outages earlier this year.
“India is a country with a large population,” Young Liu, the company’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement on Saturday. “My trip this week supported Foxconn’s efforts to deepen partnerships… and seek cooperation in new areas, such as semiconductor development and electric vehicles.”
“Foxconn will continue to communicate with local governments to seek the most beneficial development opportunities for the company and all interested parties,” it added.
The company best known for making Apple
(AAPL)iPhones, is one of the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturers. Now it is expanding into other areas, including electric vehicles.
Liu did not specify any investment spending in India during his trip, which included a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The company already has factories in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
On Friday, the South Indian state Karnataka investment promotion office said Foxconn had announced an important deal There and that 300 acres of land had been allocated for a facility. The investment will generate 100,000 jobs over 10 years in the state, he said.
According a report Bloomberg citing unnamed sources, the company plans to invest some $700 million in a new plant in Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka, to manufacture iPhone parts.
India has become an attractive potential alternative to China for companies like Apple. One of India’s top ministers, Piyush Goyal, said in January that Apple wants to increase its production in the South Asian country to a quarter of its grand total from 5% to 7% currently.
For years, Apple had relied on a vast manufacturing network in China to mass-produce iPhones, iPads and other popular products. But its reliance on the country was tested last year by Beijing’s strict zero-Covid strategy, which was swiftly dismantled last December.
Currently, Apple devices are manufactured in India by Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron, all Taiwanese companies.
– CNN’s Diksha Madhok contributed to this report
