Foxconn Technology Group has recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers and technicians from its Indian iPhone factory facilities—a move that may be a challenge to Apple Inc.'s plans to bolster its production capacity in the nation.
The majority of Chinese staff deployed at Foxconn's iPhone facilities in southern India were told to go home about two months ago, as reported by Bloomberg.
More than 300 have left since then, Taiwanese support teams now taking over, sources close to the matter revealed.
Foxconn's plant in South India accounts for most of Apple's iPhone production in the nation. Other major players are Tata Group's electronics business, which just acquired Wistron Corp.'s Indian business and currently manages Pegatron Corp.'s domestic plants.
Neither Apple nor Foxconn has publicly commented on the withdrawals. Previous this year, however, Chinese officials had been reportedly pushing regulatory authorities and provincial governments to strengthen controls over the export of technology as well as the transfer of manufacturing equipment to places like India and Southeast Asia—potentially with the aim of curbing the outward flow of Chinese manufacturing.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has earlier complimented the accuracy and potential of China's talented workforce, calling it the pillar of Apple's international production plan.
Sources indicate that the return of Chinese employees is poised to challenge the speed with which Indian workers are being trained and could slow the passage of technical expertise from China to India. This would, in its turn, increase costs of production in the short term.
One source commented, "The extraction won't affect India's quality of production, but it will likely have an impact on the efficiency on the assembly line."
The timing of the development is important in that Apple is said to be in the process of moving the whole assembly of iPhones meant for the American market to India as soon as next year. The U.S. technology giant currently does not produce any smartphones locally, with production being concentrated in China. Indian plants produce about 40 million iPhones each year—approximately 15% of the global production of Apple.