US tech giant Apple discreetly chartered six cargo flights to ferry 600 tonnes of iPhones out of India to the US at the end of March, Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources.
The cargo planes each reportedly had a capacity of 100 tonnes. The move was intended to “beat” US President Donald Trump’s incoming tariffs, the report said.
According to the news outlet’s calculation, the planes carried a total of 1.5 million iPhones.
Apple also negotiated a so-called ‘green corridor’ to speed up customs clearance at the Chennai airport, reducing the 30-hour-long process to six hours. This is a practice that they reportedly regularly follow in China, where Apple produces a large number of its products.
Apple is ramping up inventory in the US to lower the effects of tariffs on its own imports from India and China.
Apple plans to send more iPhones from India to the US to offset the high cost of China tariffs, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Last year, the company exported more than $17 billion (€15bn) of iPhones from the South Asian country. The production in India could potentially cover half of the US market for iPhones.
Meanwhile, the company’s traditional manufacturing hub, China, is caught in a trade war with the US. The world’s second biggest economy announced on Friday that it is adjusting its tariffs on US goods from 84% to 125% as of 12 April, a response to the Trump administration’s 145% tariff on imports from China.
Meanwhile, India was facing a 26% tariff on its exports to the US before a 90-day pause on so-called 'reciprocal' tariffs on certain countries came into effect this week. Currently, goods imported from India are subject to a 10% tariff at US customs.
An iPhone for $3,000?
As Apple’s supply chain is largely based in China, fears are mounting that prices will increase substantially for iPhones as well as other everyday tech products, such as laptops and headphones, many of which are produced in the Asian country.
Apple has manufactured most of its iPhones since the first model hit the market 18 years ago in China, a country with which the US is about to freeze trade, given that both sides are imposing tariffs worth more than 125% on each other’s imports.
For the tech giant to change decades-old practices and move its supply chain out of China, it could take several years—and cost billions of dollars, according to experts.
“The concept of making iPhones in the US is a non-starter,” Wedbush Securities analyst, Dan Ives, said—a widely held view in the investment community. He estimated that the current $1,000 price tag for an iPhone made in China, or India, would soar to more than $3,000 (€2,647) if production shifted to the US. And he believes that moving production domestically likely couldn't be done until, at the earliest, 2028. It's also unclear whether the tech giant would be willing to make this investment while trade policies are rapidly evolving.
Apple has yet to publicly discuss its response to Trump’s tariffs on China, but the topic may come up on 1 May when Apple CEO Tim Cook is scheduled to field questions from analysts during a quarterly conference call to discuss the company’s financial results and strategy.
Apple’s stock price has dropped by 15% and lowered the company’s market value by $500 billion (€442bn) since Trump increased tariffs on 2 April.
Euronews has contacted Apple’s press team for further comment on the shipment of cargo from India to the US.
