Apple supplier Pegatron says it has spent $14.2 million to buy the rights to use a plot of land for building a factory in Channai, India.
Via a DigiTimes report:
Pegatron will set up a manufacturing base on the factory site mainly for production of iPhone smartphones, with production to begin the earliest in the second half of 2021, according to industry sources, adding Pegatron plans to employ about 14,000 workers there.
Pegatron is Apple's second-largest iPhone assembler after Foxconn, and in June of last year registered a wholly-owned subsidiary called Pegatron Technology India. In late 2020, its board of directors approved a proposal to spend $150 million to build its first iPhone manufacturing plant in the country.
Pegatron has been cleared to take part in India's billion-dollar Production-Linked Incentive Scheme, which provides incentives on locally-produced smartphones. The Taipei-based assembler joins rival iPhone manufacturers Foxconn and Wistron, which are already signed up to the scheme.
Pegatron has also established a Vietnam-based wholly-owned subsidiary, Pegatron Vietnam, with initial paid-in capital of $150 million, some of which was used in late 2020 to acquire land in Haiphong, where it plans to set up a production base.
The iPhone assembler recently drew the ire of Apple after it was discovered that the iPhone supplier had been committing labor violations at a student workers' program at its Shanghai and Kunshan campuses in eastern China.
Apple put Pegatron on probation as a result of the violations, and while the supplier's current iPhone business is not expected to be affected, it could lose some iPhone 12 orders to rival Luxshare next year.
