Logo of Tata Group.
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Chennai: Just two months after it acquired the Wistron India plant at Malur near Kolar at Karnataka, home-grown Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd, is set to pitch over Rs 7,000 crore for the expansion of its Hosur plant, which will include setting up a unit to assemble iPhones, sources familiar with the development told DH.
The investment, it is learnt, will be made over a six-year period and generate over 30,000 jobs. A formal announcement of this plan is slated to be made during the two-day Global Investors Meet being organised by the Tamil Nadu government on January 7 and 8. Apple and Tata Electronics did not respond to e-mailed queries sent by DH.
The move by Tatas will be a shot in the arm for Tamil Nadu, which emerged as the numero uno state in electronics exports in the country in FY23, earning $5.37 billion, piping Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. The state’s electronics exports for the first six months of 2023-2024 fiscal stood at $4.8 billion, more than 2x of Uttar Pradesh ($2.5 billion).
In November, Tata Electronics became the first Indian company to become contract manufacturer of Apple’s iPhone and now it will be the third player to assemble iPhones in Tamil Nadu, which is already home to Taiwan’s Foxconn and Pegatron, which have built major assembling units near Chennai. These units came up as part of the Cupertino-based electronics major’s China+1 strategy.
Tatas were allotted 500 acres in the GMR Krishnagiri Special Investment Region, a joint venture of GMR and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Limited (TIDCO), in Uddanapalli near Hosur in 2020 for building an electronics ecosystem. “The new plant, which will come up within the large premises, will primarily assemble iPhones among others,” a second source, who too did not want to be identified, added.
The Hosur plant, which was built in a year and came into operation in 2021, currently manufactures casings for smartphones, including that of iPhones, and other electronic components that go into the handsets. The unit, which employs over 10,000 people, is on a constant recruitment drive.
The Tatas have invested over 5,000 crores in the unit under the Centre’s Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS), aimed at helping offset the disability for domestic manufacturing of electronic components and semiconductors.
It may be recalled, last year when Apple launched its iPhone15, the product presented to the international market was completely assembled in India for the first time. In fact, Apple’s smartphone exports from the country climbed to 7% in 2023 from a measly 1% in 2020. In fact, Apple’s exports from India surged to Rs 20,000 crore in April and May 2023 as against Rs 9,066 crore during the same period last year.