After several rumours, Apple supplier Winstrom is reportedly setting up an assembly facility at Peenya, Bengaluru. The US based tech giant has long been rumoured to be planning on manufacturing its products in India. With reference to the rumours, suppler Winstron is under the process of setting up an assembly facility in Bengaluru. Moreover, the production at the new facility is expected to begin as early as April, 2017.
Winstron is a Taiwanese company that is setting up at Peenya which is an industrial hub in the capital city of Karnataka. The plant will be initially used for assembling of iPhones and more reports have revealed that Apple is keen on starting iPhone manufacturing in the country by the end of 2017. Apple supplier Foxconn had earlier offered to set up a manufacturing facility in Maharashtra but the contract manufacturer is also in partnership with other phone giants like OnePlus and Xiaomi due to which the facility could not be exclusive to Apple.
With the local manufacturing, Apple will be able to price its products competitively as it will be exempted from the 12.5 percent additional duty. This is the second time Apple is approaching Bengaluru, after it announced an iOS app design and development accelerator, which is expected to come up in 2017. Apart from being able to aggressively price its products, Apple will also be able to set up stores in the country. At present the local sourcing norm is preventing the Apple stores from coming to India. The local sourcing norms entails that Apple will have to purchase a minimum of 30 percent of the manufacturing materials from the local vendors for a period of three years.
Such norms seem to be difficult for Apple as India does not really have companies that manufacture parts that live up to Apple standards.
