APPLE arranged manic last minute flights to get 600 tons of iPhones to the United States from India to get ahead of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The American tech giant “wanted to beat the tariff” so it chartered flights to get as many as 1.5 million phones to the US after ramping up production, sources said.
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It comes as analysts warn that the price of smartphones could soar to eye-watering levels as China, one of the biggest tech manufacturing hubs, faces a whopping 125% tariff rate.
Apple lobbied Indian airport authorities to slash time in customs at Chennai airport in south India down from 30 hours to just six, Reuters reports.
A source said this “green corridor” approach takes after a model Apple uses at some Chinese airports.
Six cargo jets with a capacity of 100 tones have flown out since March, the source and an Indian government official said.
An iPhone 14 and its charging cable in packaging weighs around 350 grams, based on Reuters measurements, which suggests the ferried cargo could include up to 1.5 million iPhones.
Businesses around the world have raced to respond to Donald Trump’s bruising tariffs that were unveiled last week.
The American president has ramped up tariffs on China to 125%, up from 54% previously.
Even at 54%, a state-of-the-art $1,599 iPhone 16 Pro Max could be pushed to a staggering $2,300, calculations based on Rosenblatt Securities projections suggest.
While Trump has since put a 90 day pause on most tariffs, he has still left a 10% default tariff for most countries in place while dialling them up on China.
India is poised to play a key role as Apple looks to diversify its manufacturing outside of China.
Apple has ramped up air shipments to reach its targeted 20% increase in usual production at iPhone plants.
This was done by bringing in more workers and temporarily extending operations at India’s biggest Foxconn factory to Sundays, the source told Reuters.
Apple sells a mammoth 220 million iPhones worldwide each year, and Couterpoint Research estimates that one fifth of iPhone imports to the United States come from India – with the rest coming from China.
An Indian government official told Reuters that Apple spent around eight months planning the speedy customs clearance at Chennai, with India’s government asking officials to support the tech giant.
Apple, Foxconn and India’s aviation ministry did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
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