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From January to March, Chennai airport’s air cargo has been buzzing with activity driven by exports of electronics and electrical products, which saw a four-fold increase in the first three months of the year, as per Chennai airport data.
Exports of ‘electronics and electricals’ stood at 541 tonnes in January 2025 went up to 1561 tonnes in February 2025 and to 2,203 tonnes in March. In March 2024, the export quantity was around 860 tonnes .
Out of the total exports between electronics and electrical, the former contributes to over three-fourth of the volume, sources said.
Within mobiles, the export of Apple phones from Chennai airport has increased significantly, they added. However, exact numbers could not be ascertained. The consignment is usually carried in the passenger aircraft belly. However, in the last three months ad-hoc freighters have come to Chennai to pick up a large volume of special parcels, including mobile phones, airport sources said.
The US-based National Airlines, which specialises in cargo flights, operated two special flights to Chennai in the last three months. National Airlines’ jumbo Boeing 747-400 arrived at Chennai International Airport from Birmingham (BHX) and soared onward to Incheon (ICN) with 116 tonnes of cargo in its hold, says a social media post by Airports Authority of India, Chennai.
An industry source said that the exports data indicates Chennai is the major hub for mobile manufacturing with players like Foxconn, Wistron and Tata Electronics having their plans in and around Chennai.
A Reuters report notes that Apple chartered cargo flights to ferry 600 tons of iPhones, or as many as 1.5 million, to the US from India. The company lobbied Indian airport authorities to cut to six hours the time needed to clear customs at the Chennai airport in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, down from 30 hours, the report said.
J Krishnan of S Natesa Iyer Logistics LLP, a Chennai-based freight forwarder, said Chennai’s tryst with mobile phones began with Nokia and then there a pause and now with a renewed vigour assembly of Iphones is a testament to the availability of talent, infrastructure and policy decisions like PLI. This will hasten the call of the air cargo users. “We need to have state-of-art air cargo terminals to nurture and drive this business at a very competitive cost,” he added.
Tarun Pathak, research director, Counterpoint Research, said that the “electronics component PLI timing could not have been better” and he expects accelerated pace of getting JVs in place. “The only area of caution is small sub assembly. We are still dependent on China and depends whether China sees this as an opportunity to scale things in India or sees India as competitor emerging in global electronics manufacturing. But nonetheless its advantage India. Capacities won’t ramp up overnight but at least the electronics ecosystem is in a better space if we play our cards right.” he said.
Electronics industry executives businessline spoke to say that in the short-term nothing much will change because of Trump’s frequent change of stance. “We are planning some short-term order realignment but for components we still depend heavily on China; so, we are waiting to see if Chinese suppliers will support the ramp up of orders,” an executive at an EMS firm said.
‘Made in India’ smartphone shipments grew 6 per cent y-o-y in 2024 driven by increasing exports from Apple and Samsung, according to Counterpoint’s ‘Make in India’ Service report released in March. Foxconn Hon Hai’s volumes in India grew 19 per cent y-o-y in 2024 propelled by increasing shipments of the iPhone 14, iPhone 15 and iPhone 13 models. Tata Electronics (earlier Wistron) was the fastest growing smartphone manufacturer in India in 2024 with 107 per cent y-o-y growth. The iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models were the major volume contributors here.
(With inputs from Sindhu Hariharan)
Export of electronics and electricals from Chennai airport (in tons)
| January | 541 |
|---|---|
| February | 1,561 |
| March | 2,203 |
Source: Chennai airport data
Published on April 10, 2025
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