India’s choice to remove import duties across components is a gain for Apple and could result in costs being further lowered for the India-based supply chain that is growing rapidly.
The government in India has gotten away from tariffs of about 5-7.5% applied to inputs on automotive device screens for medical devices, lithium-ion battery cells, and wireless charging hardware. The exception in wireless charging components is directly connected to the ecosystem of the MagSafe that Apple uses. With costs for imports now removed, this allows assembly partners that are India-based to have a straightforward path to building and receiving these components.
Apple has relied on India heavily as they are making ways to produce iPhones outside of China, with partners now making a quarter of their iPhones in India. With the whole iPhone 17 models produced there, operations in India have been funded by about $1.5 billion.
