Customs data shows that almost all iPhones exported by Foxconn from India were sold to the United States between March and May, well above the 50% average in 2024 and a clear sign of Apple's efforts to bypass the United States' retaliatory tariffs on China.
Data first reported by Reuters shows Apple has redirected its India exports to serve the U.S. market almost exclusively, after distributing the devices more widely to countries including the Netherlands, Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.
Foxconn exported $3.2 billion worth of iPhones from India between March and May, with an average of 97% going to the United States, compared with an average of 50.3% in 2024, according to commercial customs data seen by Reuters.
Data show that Foxconn’s iPhone shipments to the United States in May 2025 were close to US$1 billion, the second highest after March’s record shipment of devices worth US$1.3 billion.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that China would face 55% tariffs after the two countries agreed to a plan, but would need approval from their leaders to ease tariffs that have reached triple digits.
Like most U.S. trading partners, India is subject to 10% "reciprocal" tariffs and has tried to negotiate a deal to avoid the 26% "reciprocal" duties announced by Trump and then suspended in April.
Apple's increased production in India drew strong condemnation from Trump in May. "We're not interested in you building in India, India can take care of themselves, they do a great job, we want you to build here," Trump recalled.
In the first five months of this year, Foxconn has shipped $4.4 billion worth of iPhones from India to the United States, compared with $3.7 billion in all of 2024.
Apple has been taking steps to speed up production in India to get around tariffs that will make it more expensive to ship phones from China to the United States. In March, it chartered planes to transport approximately $2 billion worth of iPhone 13, 14, 16 and 16e models to the United States.
According to Reuters, Apple has also lobbied Indian airport authorities to reduce customs clearance time at the airport in the southern state of Tamil Nadu from 30 hours to six hours. The airport is a key hub for iPhone exports.
"We expect India-made iPhones to account for 25% to 30% of global iPhone shipments by 2025, compared with 18% in 2024," said Prachir Singh, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research.
Customs data shows that Tata Electronics, another smaller Apple iPhone supplier in India, shipped an average of nearly 86% of iPhone products to the United States in March and April. Its May data has not yet been released.
Data shows that the company, which is part of India's Tata Group, only started exporting iPhones in July 2024, and only 52% of its shipments were shipped to the United States during 2024.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promoted India as a smartphone manufacturing hub in recent years, but high tariffs on imported phone components mean it remains expensive to produce the devices in India compared with many other countries.
Historically, Apple sells more than 60 million iPhones in the United States each year, about 80% of which are sold in China.