Apple iPhone partner Pegatron reported agrees a $150m investment in India

Apple iPhone assembly partner Pegatron is reportedly ready to invest $150 million in a new manufacturing plant in India, according to a new report.

Citing unnamed sources, India's Economic Times says that a new factory could be ready to begin work within a year, although it may take longer.

Pegatron's factory in India is expected to start production in the second half of next year or in early 2022 and the company plans to make more investments in India over the next two years, CEO Liao Syh-jang had said in an investor conference last week. The details were reported in the Taiwanese local media.

Pegatron had originally to get the process underway sooner, but the company has faced delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the travel restrictions that it has brought into place.

Pegatron isn't Apple's biggest assembly partner, but it's still vital to the production of iPhones. Being able to expand capacity while also helping reduce Apple's reliance on Chinese manufacturing is likely to be something the San Francisco company will be keen to see Pegatron follow through with. That despite recently telling the company that it won't be considered for new business following labor violations.

Apple, on its part, is heavily investing in local assembly of iPhones in India as it diversifies outside of China amid heightened US-China tensions. Electronics and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said at an event last week that Apple has shifted nine of its operating units from China to India during the Covid period.