Apple added five new mainland Chinese suppliers while removing eight in mainland China in its latest financial year ended September 2022, after China’s strict Covid-19 controls disrupted iPhone production last holiday season, according to the latest supplier list published by the world’s most valuable company.
Globally, Apple added 18 new suppliers while cutting 19, resulting in a small adjustment in its supply chain, but one that has made India a clear winner. The number of Apple production sites in the country increased to 14 last year compared with 11 in 2021, signalling the iPhone maker’s accelerated expansion in the country. It also opened its first two retail outlets in India this year.
Apple’s latest supplier list, which was published last week, accounts for 98 per cent of the company’s direct spending on materials, manufacturing and assembly worldwide. The tech giant’s supply chain is closely watched, as changes are seen as a sign of China’s shifting role in global manufacturing.
The bulk of Apple’s manufacturing remains in China, where 151 of its top 188 disclosed suppliers have facilities, compared with 150 in 2021. However, rising labour costs combined with geopolitical tensions with the US and three years of Covid restrictions that just ended this year have pushed foreign businesses to relocate more production to other countries in the region, particularly India and Vietnam.
MacDailyNews Take: Good start, but go faster to make up for being years late, Apple.
The CCP’s lunacy is India’s gain. – <MacDailyNews, March 3, 2023
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
Smart companies have finally woken up and are working to diversify their supply chains away from, and reduce risky reliance on, CCP-controlled authoritarian China. – MacDailyNews, October 21, 2022
Apple should have been diversifying production long ago to minimize risk, not to mention China’s human rights abuses, authoritarian censorship, and myriad other concerns, including “COVID” lockdowns. – MacDailyNews, June 1, 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
The real virus is the panic. – MacDailyNews, March 9, 2020
See also: Tim Cook firmly latched Apple onto China’s CCP teat. What’s his plan for weaning it off? – November 2, 2022
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what!?
so apple has reduced the number of suppliers in china by 3.
Well, yes, by three. Maybe because 99.7% of all suppliers are in China. Where do you think EVERYTHING comes from? India?
this article makes it sound as if a big sea change took place… it did not. net change 3, big deal.
It’s your choice if you insist on avoiding anything made in China. It can be done. Tell us all about your crusade, it will surely excite others to join the commune.