CHENNAI, INDIA – Finland's Salcomp, a supplier to Apple, plans to double its workforce in India to 25,000 over the next three years, targeting annual revenue in the country of at least $2 billion to $3 billion by 2025, a top company executive said this week.

The plans come as Apple shifts production away from China after its strict COVID-related lockdowns and restrictions, and with rising trade and geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Washington.

"The whole supply chain is now kind of looking at an alternative. And India is poised to be one of the best alternatives," Sasikumar Gendham, managing director, Salcomp Manufacturing India, told reporters in Chennai during an industry event. "Everyone knows that the whole world has been depending on this one nation (China) over the last few decades and it's time to really diversify and decluster."

Salcomp will have a "significant role" in Apple's supply chain as it places a larger emphasis on India, Gendham told Reuters.

Salcomp has produced more than 1 billion iPhone chargers at its plant in Chennai, and plans to increase the company's number of employees from the 12,000 it has today to 25,000 over the next three years, he said.

Reuters reported last year that Foxconn is also planning to quadruple the workforce at its iPhone factory in India, and J.P.Morgan analysts estimated last year that a quarter of all Apple products would be made outside China by 2025, from 5% currently. Apple wants India to account for up to 25% of its production from about 5%-7% now, the country's trade minister said in January.