William Gallagher
As it announces better than expected financial results, Apple supplier Foxconn is also reportedly planning to increase moving production away from China.
Foxconn, which has just reported second quarter profits 34% up from last year, is now said to believe China's manufacturing supremacy is over.
According to Bloomberg, the chair of Foxconn's parent Hon Hai Precision Industry Company, says that the company is planning to move ever more manufacturing away from China. Young Liu said it was specifically to avoid the escalating tariffs on Chinese-made goods intended for the US.
"No matter if it's India, Southeast Asia or the Americas, there will be a manufacturing ecosystem in each," he Liu said. Reuters reports that he added that China will still remain a key part of its production, but the country's "days as the world's factory are done."
Reportedly, the current proportion of Foxconn manufacturing made outside China is now 30%. In June 2019, it was 25%.
Foxconn is Apple's largest manufacturing partner and will be chiefly responsible for the production of the forthcoming "iPhone 12" range. While it has not announced moving that production away from its Chinese bases, Foxconn has previously claimed that it could produce iPhones entirely away from the country.
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108 Comments
Very risky for him to plainly state this in the press. China could simply seize their operations still in China.
China was already on the downhill run for manufacturing prior to the "trade war" and tariffs, and Apple's groundwork in India during the Obama administration was a rather big hint in that regard. China had developed enough that there were cheaper countries for labor in the immediate vicinity and also in Mexico/Central/South America.