Apple Inc.’s supplier in India quadrupled workers in about eight months, ramping up production just as the world’s most valuable company began direct online sales in the South Asia nation. The only hitch: Wistron Corp.’s systems weren’t robust enough to handle the deluge. The number of workers at the Taiwanese company, the first Apple supplier to produce iPhones in India, surged to about 9,000 in November from some 2,000 just before the pandemic, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Wistron hired the contractual workers from six manpower companies, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter was private. A representative for Wistron declined to comment.
Riot-Hit Apple Supplier Hired More Than It Could Handle in India
Bloomberg 12/18/2020 Anto Antony and Shruti Srivastava
(Bloomberg) Apple Inc.’s supplier in India quadrupled workers in about eight months, ramping up production just as the world’s most valuable company began direct online sales in the South Asia nation. The only hitch: Wistron Corp.’s systems weren’t robust enough to handle the deluge.
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The number of workers at the Taiwanese company, the first Apple supplier to produce iPhones in India, surged to about 9,000 in November from some 2,000 just before the pandemic, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Wistron hired the contractual workers from six manpower companies, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter was private. A representative for Wistron declined to comment.
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For more than a decade, companies like Apple Inc. have entertained the idea of evolving away from China-based supply chains to have their devices made in lower-cost locales like India, Vietnam and Mexico.
The challenge of such decentralization became brutally evident last weekend with an uprising at a factory operated by Taiwan’s Wistron Corp. that makes iPhones in India. Workers at the plant in Narasapura, 40 miles from the tech hub of Bengaluru, were reported to be fed up with delayed and underpaid wages and ransacked the factory, destroying equipment and burning vehicles.
Local police responded by swinging lathis long batons that are used for crowd control to quell the dawn protest. Over 100 people were detained, local authorities were cited as saying. Wistron said Monday that those involved were not company workers, but didn’t provide evidence. A Toyota Motor Corp. unit has also had recent trouble in the same state, Karnataka.
Tsai is equally eager to wean Taiwan’s companies off China’s business as her government faces down growing threats from Beijing. India has its own growing list of issues with China, including border clashes this year that led New Delhi to ban apps and other products made by China’s biggest companies. Relations between Taiwan and India have been growing closer.
Taiwanese companies have been among the most public supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India campaign. In 2015, Foxconn Technology Group founder Terry Gou dined with Modi during a trip that included an announced plan to invest $2 billion the iPhone 11 went into production in India this year.
Dec 16 2020, 7:36 AM
December 15 2020, 3:30 AM
December 16 2020, 7:36 AM
(Bloomberg Opinion) For more than a decade, companies like Apple Inc. have entertained the idea of evolving away from China-based supply chains to have their devices made in lower-cost locales like India, Vietnam and Mexico.
(Bloomberg Opinion) For more than a decade, companies like Apple Inc. have entertained the idea of evolving away from China-based supply chains to have their devices made in lower-cost locales like India, Vietnam and Mexico.
The challenge of such decentralization became brutally evident last weekend with an uprising at a factory operated by Taiwanâs
Local police responded by