Japanese firm TDK to make iPhone battery cells in India

TDK Corp, a Japanese electronics manufacturer, will make lithium-ion battery cells for Apple iPhones in India, according to Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

"TDK, a leading supplier of cells to Apple, is setting up a 180-acre facility in Manesar, Haryana to build cells for batteries which will be used in the #MadeInIndia iPhones," the minister says in a post on microblogging platform X.

Around 1,000 new jobs will be created and increase the domestic value addition, the minister says, calling it another big win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme in shifting the mobile manufacturing ecosystem to India.

"Congratulations Apple, TDK team and @cmohry Haryana govt for enabling GoIs goal of  deepening Electronics manufacturing ecosystem in India," writes Chandrasekhar.

This comes days after Taiwan-based Foxconn said it is planning to invest around $1.6 billion in India. The investment, which will be done via Foxconn subsidiary Hon Hai Technology India Mega Development, is for "operational needs", the company said in a regulatory filing.

The iPhone supplier plans to double employment, foreign direct investment (FDI), and business size in India by 2024, according to the company's India representative V Lee.

Earlier this year, Hon Hai Technology Group chairman Young Liu said that since Foxconn entered India in 2005, its revenue, number of employees, and investment scale have grown exponentially. "In addition to existing operations in the Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu states, Hon Hai will also deploy in Karnataka, Telangana and other states," Liu said in the company's second-quarter earnings report.

Through close cooperation with central and local governments, Hon Hai plans to establish industrial parks and optimise the business environment in terms of infrastructure, policies and laws, said Liu. "At present, it is mainly engaged in the ICT final assembly business. Going forward, Hon Hai will actively deploy work in the area of key components to raise its competitiveness in India," he added.

In May, Foxconn's India subsidiary acquired a 300-acre land parcel on the outskirts of India's tech capital Bengaluru to ramp up production of iPhones. The Karnataka government also approved the ₹8,000-crore proposal by the Taiwanese electronics giant to set up a mobile phone manufacturing unit near Bengaluru.

Last month, Tata Group's electronics arm Tata Electronics became the first Indian company to produce iPhones after it signed an agreement to buy a 100% equity stake in Wistron Infocomm Manufacturing (India). The Tata group company will manufacture Apple iPhones at its newly acquired Hosur facility in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu.