The announced tariffs by the US government are unsettling many companies and investors. Anonymous sources now report that Apple is planning to bring 1.5 million iPhones to the USA in order to avoid later tariffs.
The tech giant Apple has chartered freight flights to transport 600 tons of iPhones or approximately 1.5 million devices from India to the United States. This is reported by the English-language magazine Reuters, which cites anonymous sources.
Apple is trying to circumvent the new tariffs and replenish its stock of popular iPhones. The USA is, alongside the United Kingdom, Apple’s most important market for its iPhones. This is reported by the English-language BBC.
Update, 04/13/25: Meanwhile, there is a tariff exemption from the US government for electronic devices (via TheVerge.com): Smartphones, laptops, hard drives, computer processors, and memory chips are to be exempted from the 125% tariff imposed by Trump on Chinese goods, as well as the 10% base tariff for most other countries.
Apple increases production with partners in China, Foxconn raises supply to the USA
The sources cited by Reuters report that Apple wants to get ahead of the high tariffs on its devices. The quoted source says: The company has worked with Indian airport authorities to reduce customs clearance time at Chennai Airport in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu from 30 to six hours.
So far, six cargo planes with a capacity of 100 tons each have departed since March. In terms of weight, there are approximately 1.5 million iPhones in the cargo boxes when accounting for the weight of the packaging.
What else supports Apple’s approach? Apple is supposedly supporting its air freight deliveries by significantly increasing production in the relevant factories in India. To achieve this, they are also having their employees work on Sundays. Two more sources from Reuters confirmed that the Foxconn plant in Chennai now works on Sundays as well.
Foxconn is one of Apple’s most important suppliers, and the largest plant produced about 20 million iPhones in 2024.
It is also noticeable that the value of Foxconn shipments from India to the United States has significantly increased, as evidenced by publicly available customs data.
- Between September and December 2024, shipments ranged from 110 to 331 million US dollars.
- In January 2025, shipments rose to 770 million US dollars.
- In February 2025, the value was still 643 million US dollars.
What about other companies? Apple is not the only company, reports Nikkei Asia: Companies like Apple, Dell, Microsoft, and Lenovo, which had only a few days, are currently pushing their suppliers to fly as many premium devices to the USA as possible before it could become really expensive for customers.
After the announcement of the delay of US tariffs, the stock market recovered by 12%. This mainly benefits the large fortunes: The 10 largest wealth holders globally regained 107 billion US dollars in just a few hours: Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg lost billions, now they earned a fortune in just a few hours.
