by CHENNAI, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Finnish company Salcomp, a supplier to Apple (AAPL.O), plans to double its workforce in India to 25,000 in the next three years and is targeting annual sales in the country of at least 2-3 billions of dollars by 2025, a top executive at the company said on Monday.
The plans come as Apple moves production out of China following its strict COVID-related lockdowns and restrictions, and with rising trade and geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Washington.
“The entire supply chain is now looking for an alternative. And India is poised to be one of the best alternatives,” Sasikumar Gendham, managing director of Salcomp Manufacturing India, told reporters in the southern Indian city of Chennai during an industry event.
“Everyone knows that the whole world has been dependent on this one nation (China) for the last few decades and it’s time to really diversify and declump,” he added.
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Cupertino, California-based Apple has bet heavily on India since it began assembling iPhones in the country in 2017 via Wistron (3231.TW) and later Foxconn (2317.TW), in line with the Indian government’s push to local manufacturing.
Gendham told Reuters that Salcomp will play a “significant role” in Apple’s supply chain.
Salcomp currently employs around 12,000 people at its Chennai plant, which mainly manufactures chargers but also other smartphone parts.
The company started operations in Chennai in 2020 after reaching an agreement a year earlier to take over the facility formerly owned by Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia.
Gendham said he expects the India business to generate at least $2-3 billion in revenue by 2025, up from less than 40 billion rupees ($484 million) currently.
Foxconn (2317.TW) also plans to quadruple the workforce at its iPhone factory in India over two years, Reuters reported last year.
Analysts at JPMorgan estimated last year that a quarter of all Apple products will be made outside of China by 2025, up from 5% today. Apple wants India to account for up to 25% of its production, up from around 5% to 7% currently, the country’s trade minister said in January.
Salcomp also said it is building a residential complex with entertainment and educational facilities for about 15,000 people.
Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Writing from Sethuraman NR and Aditya Kalra; Edited by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Kirsten Donovan
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