After escalating geopolitical tensions between the US and China, Apple said last month that it would begin manufacturing some of its latest iPhone 14 series devices in India. Smartphones of Apple’s iPhone 14 series have been assembled at Foxconn’s Chennai factory for the Indian market since last month. Apple was rumoured to have requested that its suppliers begin manufacturing certain AirPods and Beats headphones in India last week. Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst, has tweeted his speculations on how Apple will lessen its dependency on China.
In light of the present “de-globalization trend,” Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has tweeted some of the major findings from a recent supply chain survey, outlining the Cupertino-tech giant’s “supply chain management plan.” The tweets suggest that the strategy will involve relocating some MacBook manufacture and assembly to Thailand and a significant percentage of iPhone production to India.
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Apple’s global supply chain management strategy continues to change in response to the de-globalization trend, mainly to reduce the assembly business in China. Here are the latest major survey updates.— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) October 11, 2022
Kuo also claims that Apple is in talks with the Tata Group to build the iPhone assembly business together with Pegatron or Wistron in India. At this time, the supply of iPhones manufactured in India with the help of Foxconn is sufficient to meet domestic demand at a rate of above 80%.
Thailand has been mentioned as a possible assembly destination for Apple’s MacBooks, as the company looks to move production out of China. Kuo then goes on to detail the schedule for the Cupertino-based company’s phased withdrawal from China, with a mid-term milestone set for the next three to five years estimated to shift 25-30% of global exports and 100% of US shipments from non-China assembly and production facilities.
Meanwhile, Kuo claims that Apple’s long-term strategy involves moving production of the iPhone and MacBook to assembly sites outside of China, while production for the Chinese market will continue to be handled by sites within China.
Analysts had previously reported that high demand for the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max had prompted Apple to request that its manufacturing partner, Foxconn, produce more of the two Pro variants.