Apple could move its production out of China
The "trade war" between the United States and the Asian region put the technology company to evaluate the possibility of bringing at least 35% of its products to Southeast Asian countries, among others
Apple has asked its main suppliers to evaluate the costs that would involve moving between 15% and 30% of its production from China to Southeast Asian countries and even Mexico as part of a profound restructuring of its supply chain, reports the Japanese newspaper ‘Nikkei Asian Review’.
According to several sources not identified by the Japanese newspaper, the decision to change part of its production to other countries, despite considering the commercial tensions between China and the US, has no turning back, even if both powers resolve their differences, since Apple has come to the conclusion that the risks of being too dependent on China’s manufactures are too high.
Among the firms contacted would be some of the main assembly companies of the iPhone, such as Foxconn, Pegatron and Wistron, as well as the manufacturer of MacBook Quanta Computer, the iPad, Compal Electronics, and manufacturers of AirPods such as Inventec, Luxshare-ICT and Goertek, said the sources consulted.
Although Apple suppliers such as Wistron assemble some of the lowest cost iPhone models in India since 2017 and Foxconn since this year, more than 90% of the products of the US company are manufactured in China, where the number of suppliers exceeded in 2018 those located in the US and Japan.
The US multinational would not have set any deadline for its suppliers to submit their commercial proposals, which would include the transfer of part of the company’s production to countries such as Mexico, India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Around 5 million jobs depend on Apple’s presence in China, including more than 1.8 million software and application developers. Directly, Apple employs about 10,000 workers in China.
K. Tovar
Source: Applesesfera
