Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn is in the final stages of selecting a site in the Indian state of Maharashtra for its new iPhone manufacturing plant, The Economic Times of India reports. Sources familiar with negotiations said the Foxconn factory will cost an estimated $10 billion and focus exclusively on iPhone production. Negotiations are ongoing between Foxconn and India’s government, but a finalized deal is expected soon once Foxconn chooses the final location for its 1,200-acre facility.
The plant will likely take around 18 months to be fully operational, but the commitment likely helped smooth the way for Apple’s hopes to open retail stores in India. The country has relaxed the rules around foreign investment in recent months, but still requires most single-brand retailers to obtain 30 percent of a product’s materials locally.