Apple airlifts 600 tons of iPhones from India 'to beat' Trump tariffs

Tech giant Apple chartered cargo flights to ferry 600 tons of iPhones, or as many as 1.5 million, to the United States from India, after it stepped up production there in an effort to beat the US President Donald Trump's tariffs, sources told Reuters.

The details of the push provide an insight into the US smartphone company's private strategy to navigate around the Trump tariffs and build up inventory of its popular iPhones in the United States, one of its biggest markets.

Analysts have warned that US prices of iPhones could surge, given Apple's high reliance on imports from China, the main manufacturing hub of the devices, which is subject to Trump's highest tariff rate of 125 per cent.