Apple Reportedly Considering Moving Up to 30% of Production Out of China to Diversify Supply Chain

[fmalloy]

Sorry Donald, no US jobs. Trade imbalance with China will be transferred to other Asian countries instead. BRILLIANT! FINANCIAL GENIUS!

And your point behind your jab?

It's totally cool to assist China in being a superpower that could topple the US economically, with Apple helping? Well, as long as you get your shiny new iPhone, right?

I'd *LOVE* to see China move ahead in the design department...once they start displacing rich techie designers at the spaceship I'm sure Apple would change their tune.

 

[routine_analyst]

Not really they are just gonna move production to a different Asian country

The tariff was put in place to change the tides in unfair trade with China. If US companies move production out of China as a result of the tariff, and others follow with the same moves, then eventually the country with unfair trade practices bends the knee.

 

[fmalloy]

Sorry Donald, no US jobs. Trade imbalance with China will be transferred to other Asian countries instead. BRILLIANT! FINANCIAL GENIUS!

So basically you're totally happy to see jobs increase dramatically in China and other Asian countries? We should do what the Democrats did and grease the wheels for all manufacturing to be done in China?

Liberals celebrating the loss of jobs...smh...

 

[ajfahey]

Just 30%? There shouldn't be more than 25% of production capacity in any given country, including the US. It is dangerous to put all of your production eggs in one basket and that number should be lower to 0% in countries that are politically unstable or adversarial. It's all about mitigating diversification risk. Why would Tim not understand that?

 

[now i see it]

November 2020 could potentially mark the beginning of the end of the Trade War if we get new softie globalist president elected.

 

[PickUrPoison]

And yet, we always have shortage of phones, long delivery time.. every quarter.

What are you even talking about?

 

[jimbobb24]

Most countries like the US and other western countries have not made the investment in infrastructure and supply chain support to produce on scale. To do so independently can be cost prohibitive. Apple is now of a size and unit volume that supports an ecosystem being built around them. That was not the case just 5 to 6 years ago. Keep in mind they have been testing and doing limited manufacturing in some of these other countries over the last 3 or 4 years, but I’m sure they did not anticipate an unnecessary trade war being waged at their expense.
[doublepost=1560949001][/doublepost]
And that still doesn’t include adding a single US job.
[doublepost=1560949043][/doublepost]
Let me out first.

The US is still one of the top manufacturing countries in the world. The hogwash about we cannot do it just obscures the reality - we have created a law, regulation, and cultural environment that make labor prohibitively expensive. That’s the basic thing and all the rest is easily surmountable.

 

[pweicks]

Yes? How does moving from China to other Asian countries improve the US economy or bring more work to Americans? Obviously it doesn’t. Sad that certain people, despite millennia history proving the contrary, want still to believe so much that history can be turned back like a clock that they are ready believe to silly promises that many infamous man have already done to people many times only with the same final result.

First, your response is terribly worded and very difficult to understand. Perhaps follow the example I have set in keeping things simple. Second, it’s not about getting jobs back to the US. As I’ve already stated, all that matter’s is getting the jobs out of China. In case you don’t know, China is the economic bully of planet Earth, that is the world which you and I live on, right? They have stolen American IP with no consequence or remorse and they engage in unfair, anti-competitive trade agreements throughout the world, including with the US. Getting jobs out of China is what matters. Getting those jobs to the US not so much. The US will benefit from this because it will enable them to lessen reliability on China’s unfair trade, and they will then be able to engage in FAIR and HONEST trade agreements with the countries to which these jobs have gone. The tariffs are working. Sorry.

 

[Val-kyrie]

Difficult situation here, price hike for Trump taxes, or price hike for higher production cost? hmmmm

There was an article online showing a comparison of wages in Asian countries compared to factory workers employed Apple’s suppliers. Wages paid by Apple suppliers to workers in other Asian countries, eg Vietnam, would be lower than what is currently paid to workers in China. The cost to the suppliers is in building new factories.

You want iPhones to double in price I guess

There was a study which addressed manufacturing iPhones in the USA and it suggested an increase in production cost of no more than 15%.

 

[Sanlitun]

Yes? How does moving from China to other Asian countries improve the US economy or bring more work to Americans? Obviously it doesn’t. Sad that certain people, despite millennia history proving the contrary, want still to believe so much that history can be turned back like a clock that they are ready believe to silly promises that many infamous man have already done to people many times only with the same final result.

You know who is not using Apple products? That would be the million Uyghurs in lockdown in Xinjiang.

Again it's not just about Apple. It's about completely disengaging our society from the communists unless that engagement can occur within the boundaries of the rule of law.

See this? - https://i.imgur.com/LpwWN4g.gif

That's the ancient Islamic cemetery in Hotan being erased.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Great, as long as the price doesn’t go up beyond what is already ridiculous.

 

[bambooshots]

Sounds like a sensible business decision.

 

[ksec]

What you said could not be farther away from truth. India is making efforts specifically to get these kinds of jobs. It is heavily investing in infrastructure, electricity as well as clean water. It is also cutting red tape which is reflected by its climb up the ladder in ease of doing business rankings. Obviously lot of room for improvement, but the work has started long time ago.

I mean specifically for Apple / Foxconn. Not in general. ( Otherwise they wouldn't be projected Number 1 in GDP Growth by 2025 ). It seems there are things that hasn't worked out. Last time I read India wanted all supplier to contribute some towards these infrastructure. I thought that was absurd.

Of course news could be fake, since there aren't any reliable second source we could verify. Any Indians could provide some insight into it would be much appreciated.

 

[Freida]

The goal in those states is to drive down wages and eliminate benefits like in the third world countries that Apple would go to. That's what I mean

right, so you agree with me that USA made is not feasible, right?

 

[hellopupy]

Sorry Donald, no US jobs. Trade imbalance with China will be transferred to other Asian countries instead. BRILLIANT! FINANCIAL GENIUS!

lol you are very short sighted or have very little knowledge of what its all for. Its to diminish China's financial leverage over the US and "win" the trade war. Btw, winning the trade war is not really winning but getting back to normal trade relations;

No more forced IP transfer
No more high tariffs
No more currency manipulation
No more dumping

 

[The Hammer]

right, so you agree with me that USA made is not feasible, right?

Not necessarily.

 

[acorntoy]

Sounds reactive rather than proactive. Surprising considering Apple is usually good at diversifying properly.

What I was thinking, surprised they didn’t do this months ago when the administration rejected their exemption of cables at the 10% rate. Kinda seems like they believed it would never actually happen so they sat on their hands.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

I wonder if bringing manufacturing to the Americas will save on transportation costs, even if manufacturing costs go up initially.

Perhaps improving cooperation with our neighboring countries could improve their quality of life, and by extension, ours, could be an added bonus.

 

[ksnell]

Sorry Donald, no US jobs. Trade imbalance with China will be transferred to other Asian countries instead. BRILLIANT! FINANCIAL GENIUS!

Diversification is a good thing. What if they bring jobs to Mexico and it helps relieve the strain of all of the migrants at the boarder? Pretty sure many would rather stay in their native country if they could find good work. Win-Win.
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Mr. Cook is a supply chain genius, I don’t think you need to concern yourself with Apple diversifying “properly”. If you know anything about Cook, you know it’ll be done efficiently, intelligently, strategically and cost effectively.

So would you say he is a stable, genius?

 

[iReality85]

Sorry Donald, no US jobs.

Followed by...

Trade imbalance with China will be transferred to other Asian countries instead. BRILLIANT! FINANCIAL GENIUS!

/facepalm.

Transferring jobs out of China and into any county BUT China was always the goal. Trump is using Silicon Valley as a means of attrition to weaken China, and as this article shows, it's working. Silicon Valley doesn't want its IP stolen by China, or tariffs placed on products by the US. So the only option is to move manufacturing out of China (which is a good strategic move), thereby accomplishing Trump's objective.

By the way, it shouldn't have been left up to Trump. You can thank decades of Clinton, Bush, and Obama, and Congressional Democrats and Republicans for selling-out America's manufacturing base in chase of cheap labor and profits.

This is what happens when you have politicians and businesses with delusions of globalism who think the world is destined to conform to western liberalism (that's naive), and put all their eggs in one basket (China). They then find out China doesn't have their best interests at heart, steals their intellectual property, and becomes a national security threat.

 

[raghu8912]

India. The future of everything is India.

Or maybe, darkest Peru...

I work with manufacturers in both China & India, problems I see is the power supply & strikes and unexpected factory shutdowns.
[doublepost=1560975717][/doublepost]

Followed by...



/facepalm.

Transferring jobs out of China and into any county BUT China was always the goal. Trump is using Silicon Valley as a means of attrition to weaken China, and as this article shows, it's working. Silicon Valley doesn't want its IP stolen by China, or tariffs placed on products by the US. So the only option is to move manufacturing out of China (which is a good strategic move), thereby accomplishing Trump's objective.

By the way, it shouldn't have been left up to Trump. You can thank decades of Clinton, Bush, and Obama, and Congressional Democrats and Republicans for selling-out America's manufacturing base in chase of cheap labor and profits.

This is what happens when you have politicians and businesses with delusions of globalism who think the world is destined to conform to western liberalism (that's naive), and put all their eggs in one basket (China). They then find out China doesn't have their best interests at heart, steals their intellectual property, and becomes a national security threat.

I do support Trump with IP. Manufacturing jobs haven't moved to US yet.
I liked Paul Ryans idea of 5% Border tax, I wish Trump worked with Paul Ryan on this one. This would have brought some jobs back.

 

[Nipommu]

Why not bring it to the US? Oh wait ...

Um....there are other countries besides the US they can go. India? Vietnam? Pakistan? etc etc it'll take some time but it can happen

 

[mw360]

I see you fail to realize how good it is that China's trade will be fragmented into multiple Asian countries. This type of jobs will probably never come to the US (at least to a sizeable degree), but as long as there is not a single industrial superpower (=China at the moment) the US has only to gain from weakening it.

Well if you can't make America great again, maybe making Vietnam great will have to do.

Maybe I'm mistaken but wasn't there a previous US president who negotiated a trade agreement with the other developing Asian countries with an aim to bolstering their manufacturing economies so they could compete against dominant China, while at the same time committing them to align more closely to US business practices, like effective IP enforcement and so on? That sounds like it would achieve exactly what you want and more. Whatever happened to that?

 

[yaxomoxay]

Well if you can't make America great again, maybe making Vietnam great will have to do.

Maybe I'm mistaken but wasn't there a previous US president who negotiated a trade agreement with the other developing Asian countries with an aim to bolstering their manufacturing economies so they could compete against dominant China, while at the same time committing them to align more closely to US business practices, like effective IP enforcement and so on? That sounds like it would achieve exactly what you want and more. Whatever happened to that?

Even Sanders harshly criticized the TPP as basically selling America.

 

[Nipommu]

More and more companies are doing this right now. I see this happening slowly but surely China has been playing "production monopoly" long enough and companies has had enough of their unreasonable conditions, demands, stealing, cheating, copying, etc etc. China without production prowess can equate to a country like Vietnam or Malaysia they will no longer have the international trade/production advantage. China is slowly being ripped of its mass and its showing...Chinese economy depends on production capabilities but once this gets weakened they will know their real position in the global playing field. They will get back into their lane as they should know their true position and true "power" and realize it will not overtake the US economy. As soon as they realize this better it gets for everybody they're just flexing and deluded that they have enough global pull when in actuality they really don't.

Move out of China - lower their production by 50% of current levels by 2050. I am not anti china but they need to realize they're more like Russia in the end and not a true US competitor. It takes lots of time and money but other second/third world countries can replace China to become the new "China" in terms of productions. This IS possible as Samsung already demonstrated this by moving their production to Vietnam (albeit it took them 10 years to get Vietnam up to speed).

Hopefully the trade war triggers more big and small companies to move out and find that next "China".

It's just a matter of time.