Apple supplier in India begins making AirPods parts for export

New Delhi - A key Apple supplier has begun making components for AirPods in India, marking a significant step in the tech giant’s push to expand production in the country.

The Indian unit of Jabil has begun shipping AirPods enclosures, or plastic bodies, to China and Vietnam, where the wireless earphones are assembled, people familiar with the matter said.

Apple is building out production in India to

reduce its reliance on China,

where United States trade restrictions and Covid-19-related disruptions have made manufacturing more risky. Its India output has thus far been limited to the iPhone, making AirPods the second Apple product now partially manufactured in the country.

US manufacturing services provider Jabil operates an 858,000 square foot facility employing more than 2,500 workers in Pune, western India, according to its website.

Apple is the world’s biggest maker of so-called true wireless stereo devices, which includes wireless earphones and headphones. It shipped 23.8 million units in the third quarter for a 31 per cent market share, according to research firm Canalys.

While India is still some time away from getting Apple to fully manufacture AirPods locally, New Delhi has given initial clearances to more than a dozen of its Chinese suppliers to ramp up via joint ventures with Indian partners.

Luxshare Precision Industry, one of Apple’s Chinese suppliers that make AirPods, is among the companies gaining that approval. Luxshare in 2020 agreed to take over a shuttered Motorola plant in India’s southern Tamil Nadu state, but has yet to begin manufacturing Apple products locally.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made it a national priority to grow India’s manufacturing sector. Apple’s latest India push comes as Mr Modi’s government is drawing up plans to give financial incentives for local production of wireless earphones and smartwatches, one of the people said.

Apple has a long way to go to diversify out of China, which makes nearly 98 per cent of iPhones. Tensions between Washington and Beijing, and a Covid-19 flareup at a major plant in the country exposed vulnerabilities in the company’s supply chain.

Still, the company has made progress with the effort. Its partner Hon Hai last year began making the iPhone 14 in India just weeks after the model’s global launch, and Apple exported more than US$2.5 billion (S$3.3 billion) of its devices from the South Asian nation from April to December. BLOOMBERG