Apple suppliers are likely to move capacity out of China far faster than many observers anticipate to pre-empt fallout from escalating Beijing-Washington tensions.
Nguyen Xuan Quynh and John Boudreau for Bloomberg News:
AirPods maker GoerTek Inc. is one of the many manufacturers exploring locations beyond its native China…
It’s investing an initial $280 million in a new Vietnam plant while considering an India expansion, Deputy Chairman Kazuyoshi Yoshinaga said in an interview. US tech companies in particular have been pushing hard for manufacturers like GoerTek to explore alternative locations, said the executive, who oversees GoerTek’s Vietnamese operations from northern Bac Ninh province.
“Starting from last month, so many people from the client side are visiting us almost every day,” Yoshinaga said from his offices at GoerTek’s sprawling industrial complex north of Hanoi. The topic that dominates discussions: “When can you move out?”
The expanding conflict between the US and China, which began with a trade war but has since expanded to encompass sweeping bans on the exchange of chips and capital, is spurring a rethink of the electronics industry’s decades-old supply chain. The world’s reliance on the Asian nation became starkly clear during the Covid Zero years, when Beijing’s restrictions choked off the supply of everything from phones to cars.
MacDailyNews Take: When you’re way late, it’s time to hurry!
The time to accelerate plans to move production out of China was November 9th 2016, but, hey, six years late is better than never! – MacDailyNews, December 4, 2022
It’s smart for both Apple and Foxconn to diversify assembly outside of China. There’s no sense having all of your eggs in one basket. — MacDailyNews, April 2, 2019
India will help power Apple’s growth for many years. – MacDailyNews, January 4, 2017
See also: Tim Cook firmly latched Apple onto China’s CCP teat. What’s his plan for weaning it off? – November 2, 2022
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews by shopping The Apple Store at Amazon.
The reason why Apple is so late is because it’s stuck with a CEO who is not a visionary. Cook is risk-averse to the point of failure. Cook is a one-trick pony who’s beholden to the CCP which gave him access to cheap, plentiful labor. That’s Cook’s claim to fame. Now, he’s belatedly trying to replicate it in Vietnam and India. It’s all Cook knows. Time to go.
So your whine is he is running the most successful business ever.
Cook fell in love with the ease and cheapness of exploiting the Chinese communist worker. He didn’t want it to end. Look at his bank account.
So, he’s way, way, way too late. It was obvious from the election of Trump that China dependence was a huge risk. Cook didn’t want to give it up, to the detriment of Apple.
The ever-compliant, docile, and cowed Chinese are still all wearing masks! LOL!
This dovetails perfectly with a video that just came out.
Dear Chinese Workers in 2023: Sucks To Be You
https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=54242
There are online articles and videos reporting on manufacturing centers closing down, removing machinery, managers cutting back on hours, owners lamenting pressure to lower prices due to slow sales, and workers in long lines looking for work.
Could you post links? I didn’t find anything.
Check out John Batchelor’s podcasts when he interviews Gregory Copley regarding global strategies and defense. Copley has been in touch for 50 + years with his overseas contacts in most of the important countries of the world. His recent statements regarding China’s economic woes are most dire. Even the upper-level CCP folks aren’t getting their full paychecks for months; regular workers are behind in their pay by significant amounts and the export-reliant (60% !) economy is faltering badly and getting worse by the week. Most western economies’ domestic consumption portion of their GDPs are 70%+ yet China’s is only about 40%. Maybe a citizens’ revolt would occur if only the Communists weren’t the only ones holding all of the guns….