Apple expected to further diversify MacBook production within China

A new report claims that Apple will diversify its MacBook Pro production so that it is made in more sites around China.

Apple has already been working for some years to spread MacBook Pro production over multiple companies and countries. In 2019, Apple and many other Big Tech firms were said to be looking to move away from China to avoid then-threatened US tariffs. Then in 2020, Apple specifically asked Foxconn to open a plant in Vietnam, for instance. Foxconn got approval for that from local Vietnamese authorities in 2021.

Since then, too, China has added an impetus to Big Tech firms moving away because of energy and coronavirus issues.

In late 2021, China began introducing power cuts, that affected Apple suppliers. Then the Chinese authorities very strict — and effective — COVID measures saw half of Apple's suppliers forced to lockdown for various extended periods.

Moving operations entirely away from China would take many years, however, and now a Digitimes research analyst predicts that Apple is planning a compromise. Regardless of its efforts outside mainland China, Apple is expected to spread MacBook Pro production to multiple sites within the country.

Said to be based on supply chain information, the report claims that Quanta will shift some production from its Shanghai plant, to one in Chongqing, western China.

Quanta reportedly now manufactures approximately 60% of all Apple's MacBook orders, including the 14-inch MacBook Pro, and 16-inch MacBook Pro.

Currently, the remaining 40% is produced by Foxconn at its Chengdu, western China, plant. However, Foxconn gained some proportion of orders as Quanta's Shanghai plants were forced into lockdowns. According to Digitimes, production of the 13-inch MacBook Air will gradually be moved to China's Wingtech company, based in Kunming, southwestern China.

The publications sources estimate that Apple ultimately intends to have Quanta making 55% of all MacBooks, Foxconn 35%, and Wingtech 10%.

Note that Digitimes has a strong track record for its supply chain sources, but a significantly poorer one for the conclusions it draws about Apple's plans.

9 Comments

TenApplesUpOnTop 54 comments · 3 Years

About 2 years ago

Not sure I would count this as diversifying….

racerhomie3 1264 comments · 7 Years

Why is Apple not looking towards Indonesia,Vietnam,India,Bangladesh etc. These are growing nations that are hungry for manufacturing and have huge number of customers.

netrox 1500 comments · 12 Years

racerhomie3 said:

Why is Apple not looking towards Indonesia,Vietnam,India,Bangladesh etc. These are growing nations that are hungry for manufacturing and have huge number of customers.

India is not favored due to slow processes, heavy regulations, and poor infrastructure. Indians have already rioted many times which makes businesses not trust them to be dependable.

In USA, we have many regulations dictating what businesses can do and cannot do. It's usually due to environmental protections and private ownership rights. Our infrastructure is weakening as well. There are a lot of solutions for improving the whole infrastructure like building dedicated highways for autonomous vehicles (which means less traffic and safer than human-driven roads) and high speed rails but we're stuck with politicians and voters who don't really grasp the concept of how important those things are. We need to break away from our dependence on "driving" as a symbol of independence or wealth and focus on providing Americans the resilient infrastructure they need.

China delivers as promised. China is ruthless but efficient at making sure it gets done. Also, China has billions of people working. In USA, we have way too many people not working and we just don't have enough manpower to scale up to demands. China has superior infrastructure and has high speed rails to connect to all major cities. China is already rolling out autonomous vehicles.

That's basically the reason why we don't move to other nations - they're not worth the cost or the time when China can do it much faster and scale up nicely for less. Even in USA, we are not meeting the deadlines for factories and costing us a lot more money than forecasted. What took China only a few months to build would take at least two years in USA due to lack of manpower and heavy regulations here.

UPDATE:

Relevant article relating to India:

https://asiatimes.com/2020/11/why-manufacturers-are-not-rushing-from-china-to-india/

9secondkox2 3120 comments · 8 Years

It’s still in China.

So not really diversification.

It really does suck knowing that a percentage of just about every purchase I make with Apple goes to the Chinese dictatorship (regardless of which of the dictator’s buildings the product is made in).

9secondkox2 said:

It’s still in China.
So not really diversification.

It really does suck knowing that a percentage of just about every purchase I make with Apple goes to the Chinese dictatorship (regardless of which of the dictator’s buildings the product is made in).

Everyone sees the problem with relying too much on China for production but nobody seems to want to the change needed to solve the problem.

I would gladly pay more for Apple products if they were manufactured in America or anywhere else other than China for that matter.