India overtakes China in smartphone exports to the U.S. as manufacturing jumps 240%, report shows

India has overtaken China to go the apical exporter of smartphones to the U.S., according to probe steadfast Canalys, reflecting the displacement successful manufacturing proviso concatenation distant from Beijing amid tariff-fueled uncertainty.

Smartphones assembled successful India accounted for 44% of U.S. imports of those devices successful the 2nd quarter, a important summation from conscionable 13% successful the aforesaid play past year. Total measurement of smartphones made successful India soared 240% from a twelvemonth earlier, Canalys said.

In contrast, the stock of Chinese smartphone exports to the U.S. shrank to 25% successful the 4th ended June, from 61% a twelvemonth earlier, Canalys information released Monday showed. Vietnam's stock of smartphone exports to the U.S. was besides higher than that of China astatine 30%.

The surge successful shipments from India was chiefly driven by Apple's accelerated displacement toward the state astatine a clip of heightened commercialized uncertainty betwixt the U.S. and China, said Sanyam Chaurasia, main expert astatine Canalys. This is the archetypal clip India exported much smartphones to the U.S. than China.

Apple has reportedly been speeding up its plans to marque astir of its iPhones sold successful the U.S. astatine factories successful India this year, with the aim of manufacturing astir a 4th of each iPhones successful the state successful the adjacent fewer years.

Trump has threatened Apple with further tariffs and urged the company's CEO Tim Cook to marque iPhones domestically, a determination experts person said would beryllium astir intolerable arsenic it would propulsion iPhone prices higher.

While galore of Apple's halfway products, including iPhones and Mac laptops, person received exemptions from Trump's "reciprocal tariffs," officials person warned that it could beryllium a impermanent reprieve.

Its planetary peers, Samsung Electronic and Motorola, person besides been striving to determination assembly for U.S.-bound smartphones to India, though their displacement has been importantly slower and is constricted successful standard compared with Apple, according to Canalys.

Many planetary manufacturers person been progressively shifting their last assembly to India, allocating much capableness successful the South-Asian federation to service the U.S. market, said Renaud Anjoran, enforcement vice president of Agilian Technology, an electronics shaper successful China.

The Guangdong-based institution is present renovating a installation successful India with plans to determination portion of its accumulation to the country. "The program for India is moving up arsenic accelerated arsenic we can," Anjoran said. The institution expects to statesman proceedings accumulation runs soon earlier ramping up to full-scale manufacturing.

That said, output rates — an indicator of manufacturing ratio — are little erstwhile manufacturing successful India and Vietnam, compared with China, Anjoran said, citing quality-related incidents linked to inexperienced workers arsenic good arsenic logistics delays.

While shipments, which correspond the fig of devices sent to retailers bash not bespeak last sales, they are a proxy for marketplace demand.

Overall, iPhone shipments to the U.S. declined by 11% twelvemonth connected twelvemonth to 13.3 cardinal units successful the 2nd quarter, reversing the 25.7% maturation successful the anterior quarter, according to Canalys. Globally, iPhone shipments declined 2% from a twelvemonth earlier to 44.8 cardinal units successful the April to June quarter, according to Canalys.

Shares of Apple person tumbled 14% this year, partially connected concerns implicit its precocious vulnerability to tariff uncertainty and intensifying contention successful smartphones and artificial quality sector.

While the institution has begun assembling iPhone 16 Pro models successful India, it inactive relies heavy connected China's much mature manufacturing infrastructure to conscionable U.S. request for the premium model, Canalys said.

In April, Trump imposed a 26% tariff connected imports from India, overmuch little than the triple-digit tariffs connected China astatine the time, earlier pausing those duties until an Aug 1. deadline.

— CNBC's Arjun Kharpal contributed to this story.