With Apple already keen to move manufacturing away from China and towards other countries, a new report claims that some suppliers are already working to get facilities ready.
Ongoing manufacturing uncertainty in China has affected Apple’s ability to get products into the hands of customers, particularly the iPhone 14 Pro models that are built in the country. The wheels have already been put in motion to try and move some manufacturing to other countries, including Vietnam and India. The latter is now reported to be the subject of applications for land in the country, with Apple suppliers ready to invest sizeable sums and generate thousands of jobs.
Diversification
A Business Standard (opens in new tab) report says that the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) has already confirmed that some Apple suppliers have applied for land with the authority. It’s thought that thousands of jobs would be generated.
“Seiko Advance Limited, an ink manufacturing company, expressed its desire to make its product on 5 acres of land in Sector 29 of YEIDA,” YEIDA CEO Arun Vir Singh is reported as saying. Seiko Advance Limited is the company responsible for iPhone colors including the popular Midnight Green iPhone 11 Pro.
Apple’s aim is to try and produce up to 45% of the world’s iPhones, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Right now, that figure is in the single digits.
The company hopes that it can sidestep the issues that COVID-19 has highlighted, with Apple previously overreliant on plants in China. Putting all of its iPhone eggs into one basket has obvious problems, but it wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic and China’s rolling lockdowns that the issue became most obvious.
Apple had reportedly told its suppliers to actively seek out ways to build its products outside of China, with Foxconn itself also thought to be in the firing line following riots at its Zhengzhou factory last month.
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