Apple supplier Pegatron is in talks to open a second facility near the southern city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu state, Reuters news report said.
Taiwan-based Pegatron six months ago opened the first manufacturing facility with an investment of $150 million in India.
The new factory will assemble the latest iPhones.
India is seen as the next growth frontier for the US-based Apple. Around $9 billion worth of smartphones have been exported from India between April 2022 and February this year, and iPhones accounted for more than 50 percent of that, according to the India Cellular and Electronics Association.
Pegatron currently accounts for 10 percent of Apple’s iPhone production in India on an annualised basis, research firm Counterpoint said.
The talks for starting a second facility on lease are ongoing and it will be located inside Mahindra World City near Chennai, just around where the company inaugurated the first plant in September 2022.
Apple began iPhone assembly in the country in 2017 via Wistron and later Foxconn in line with the Indian government’s push for local manufacturing.
India’s Karnataka state said this week it has approved a $968 million investment by Foxconn, leading to the creation of 50,000 jobs.
Foxconn has plans to build a $200 million factory in India to produce the wireless earphones for Apple after winning a contract. It already assembles some iPhone models at its plant located in Tamil Nadu.
