India exports manufacturing depth

India is no longer just assembling smartphones for export. Apple suppliers in India are now shipping a record volume of parts and sub-assemblies to China, a reversal of the old flow. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) Those shipments reached about $2.5 billion so far in fiscal year 2025-26 and could rise to roughly $3.5 billion by year-end, up from about $920 million a year earlier, according to industry estimates cited by The Economic Times and Pune Mirror. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) (punemirror.com) The parts are going out under India’s Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme, or ECMS, which the Union Cabinet approved on March 28, 2025 and the government notified on April 8, 2025. The scheme is meant to push production beyond final assembly into screens, mechanics, enclosures, batteries and other inputs. (meity.gov.in) (pib.gov.in) That is a different stage of manufacturing. Final assembly is the last step; component manufacturing is deeper in the supply chain, where more of the design, tooling and process know-how sits. (investindia.gov.in) (meity.gov.in) India’s phone industry had already scaled fast before this shift. The Press Information Bureau said India went from 2 mobile manufacturing units in 2014 to more than 300, while mobile phone exports rose from ₹1,566 crore in 2014-15 to ₹1.2 lakh crore in 2023-24. (pib.gov.in) Apple helped accelerate that jump. A government release said Apple exports from India hit ₹1,10,989 crore, or about $12.8 billion, in 2024, crossing the ₹1 lakh crore mark with 42% year-on-year growth. (pib.gov.in) The next change showed up in the U.S. market. A Press Information Bureau note said India overtook China in the second quarter of 2025 to become the top smartphone exporter to the United States. (pib.gov.in) That lines up with the new estimate cited by ANI from McKinsey: India now supplies roughly 40% of U.S. smartphone demand that previously came from China. ANI attributed the shift to Apple’s supplier buildout and to companies moving production to diversify geopolitical and tariff risk. (aninews.in) The government is trying to lock in that move with bigger local supply chains. By September 30, 2025, ECMS had drawn investment commitments of ₹1,15,351 crore, nearly double the original target of ₹59,350 crore, according to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Press Information Bureau. (pib.gov.in) (meity.gov.in) The clearest sign of the transition is where the boxes are going. India is still exporting finished iPhones, but it is now also sending the pieces that other factories use to build them. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) (punemirror.com)