Apple assembly partner Pegatron is said to be readying to make a $150 million investment to build a manufacturing plant in India. The Pegatron board of directors has reportedly approved the expenditure. Pegatron is Apple’s second-largest iPhone assembler after Foxconn.
The new production facility is expected to begin production in the second half;f of 2021 or in early 2022. More investments are said to be planned in India over the next two years, reported India’s Economic Times, citing unnamed executives.
Pegatron registered its India subsidiary in July. The company said at the time that the global COVID-19 pandemic had made it difficult for staff to visit India, which resulted in delays for the move. The facility will be the first inside the country, and will likely be involved in iPhone production once the assembly lines begin moving.
Pegatron has been designated as eligible to participate in India’s billion-dollar Production-Linked Incentive Scheme, which provides incentives on locally-produced smartphones. The Chinese firm joins rival iPhone assemblers Foxconn and Wistron, who are already enrolled in the program.
Apple’s recently put Pegatron on probation after it was discovered that the iPhone supplier had been committing labor violations at a student workers’ program at its Shanghai and Kunshan campuses in eastern China.
Apple’s putting Pegatron on probation for the violations isn’t expected to affect the supply partner’s current iPhone business. However, it could lose some iPhone 12 business to competitor Luxshare in 2021.