From “Apple mulls shifting 15%-30% of output from China amid trade war” posted Wednesday morning on Nikkei Asian Review:
Key iPhone assemblers Foxconn, Pegatron, Wistron, major MacBook maker Quanta Computer, iPad maker, Compal Electronics, and AirPods makers Inventec, Luxshare-ICT and Goertek all have been asked to evaluate options outside of China, multiple sources say. Many other Apple suppliers such as print circuit board and casing providers are closely monitoring where these major assemblers would shift their production…
The countries being considered for diversification include Mexico, India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. India and Vietnam are among the favorites for smartphone diversification, the people said, who asked for anonymity as the discussions are private.
My take: Note that the U.S. was not on Nikkei’s list. Hope the President doesn’t see it.
See also: Trump says Apple will build ‘three big plants, beautiful plants’ in the US
It truly surprises me that the captains of industry, big business and corporations with primary supply chain dependency in China have not seen this coming for years, especially after the election of DJT. It’s not like all that’s happening with China is new and unforeseen. It’s been ramping up for at least a decade. I only can surmise that the captains of industry, big business and CEOs of major corporations felt that they had the political clout to circumvent this process from occurring.
Personally, I think it’s hot air. Apple has been expanding it’s capacity outside of China for a long time now.
There were about 11 companies that were concerned about taking the first steps to moving away from China, as each did big business and didn’t wish to be retaliated against if they acted individually. Thus, [Lifted from a comment I saw] the grand strategy … was to get all of our ducks in a row BEFORE confronting China on trade. The first step was to get the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) going, which would have alerted countries like Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines to get going on infrastructure improvements…..all necessary before factories can be built. Then, the American companies manufacturing in China were supposed to begin the process of gradually transferring their business to these other countries.
Meanwhile, our diplomats and State Department was supposed to get busy selling our European, Latin American and Canadian allies on this grand strategy……
Then… trashed the State Department……driving away many of our trade experts…..junked the TPP.