Report: Apple flies 600 tons of iPhones from India due to US tariffs

It was a kind of capitalist air bridge: Before the introduction of new US tariffs to goods from all over the world-some of which have now been withdrawn-Apple tried to enter the USA as many devices as possible. In the meantime, further details on the campaign are known. Like the news agency Reuters writes600 tons of iPhones should have been imported from India alone, where customs should initially be “only” 26 percent. It was at least 1.5 million smartphone units.

Previously, Apple had intensified the production in order to obtain the highest possible quantities from the factories, the report said. So the tariffs have boosted the economy in India at least at short notice and worsened the US trade balance.

Apple’s motto: “Beat the Taiffs”

Preparation at Chennai Airport in the state of Tamil Nadu, where there is an important iPhone factory, was accelerated to just six hours instead of the usual 30. Apple has replicated a model that the group already uses at airports in China to increase export speed – the so -called “green corridor”. Around “six cargo jets” with 100 tons of loads have been flown since March, at least one this week. If you calculate with the iPhone 14, which weighs 350 grams, you would get 600 tons to 1.5 million devices, Reuters calculates – with supplementing the charging cable and the packaging.

Nevertheless, these devices are a drop on the hot stone. Apple produces and sells over 200 million iPhones each year, most of which come from China; It is about 15 percent from India. Once Apple was primarily concerned with driving “Indian” iPhones on site or elsewhere in Asia, but due to the current situation, around a fifth of all iPhones sold in the USA are now to come from India.

The product series is in an intermediate phase. Most recently, the IPhone 16E entry -level model came onto the market in spring. It will be exciting again in autumn when the iPhone 17 generation appears.

Customs exposed, but not for China

The Trump administration recently decided to suspend the new tariffs that were used for every country in the world except Russia and North Korea for 90 days. However, the United States will retain new tariffs for Canada and Mexico. China received even higher tariffs of up to 155 percent. The People’s Republic has introduced counter-tariffs to US products. The capital markets have been racing since the duties of the tariff roller coaster.

In India, iPhone production is said to have been increased again recently. Teams at Foxconn India are now also working on Sundays, a total of 20 percent more cell phones should leave the factories. Foxconn and Tata, the two finisheders on the subcontinent, are now operating three factories there. Their structure was not easy; China tried to prevent knowledge and machine export to India.