Apple's New Mac Pro Won't Be 'Made in USA' as Production Reportedly Moving to China

[MacRumors]

While the current Mac Pro has been manufactured in Texas since it was released in 2013, The Wall Street Journal reports that the new Mac Pro unveiled earlier this month will be assembled by Quanta Computer in China.

Quanta is said to be ramping up production of the new Mac Pro at a factory near Shanghai, and given lower wages and closer proximity to other Apple suppliers in Asia, the Chinese manufacturing is expected to cost Apple less than it would to make the computer in the United States.

The move would allow Apple to avoid many of the issues its U.S. suppliers have faced in assembling the Mac Pro stateside. The current Mac Pro is Apple's only major hardware product manufactured in the United States, with all others assembled by Chinese contractors, such as Quanta for the Apple Watch.

Here's a video of how the current Mac Pro is made in the United States:

In a statement, an Apple spokesperson said "final assembly is only one part of the manufacturing process," adding that the new Mac Pro is designed and engineered in the United States and includes some U.S.-made components.

As a high-end, expensive workstation for professionals, the Mac Pro is not a high volume product for Apple, but where it is manufactured is notable given the ongoing trade war between the United States and China. President Donald Trump has urged U.S. companies to manufacture products domestically.

Trump's administration has increased tariffs to 25 percent on $200 billion of Chinese imports and has threatened to impose tariffs on $300 billion more goods, including many Apple products. Apple has warned that these tariffs would reduce its economic contributions and threaten its global competitiveness.

The all-new Mac Pro is an absolute powerhouse with up to 28-core Intel Xeon processors, up to 1.5TB of ECC RAM, up to 4TB of SSD storage, up to AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo graphics with 64GB of HBM2 memory, and eight PCIe expansion slots for maximum performance, expansion, and configurability.

The new design includes a stainless steel frame with smooth handles and an aluminum housing that lifts off for 360-degree access to the entire system. The housing features a unique lattice pattern to maximize airflow.

Apple says the new Mac Pro will be released in the fall, starting at $5,999.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple's New Mac Pro Won't Be 'Made in USA' as Production Reportedly Moving to China

 

[norbinhouston]

Greedy old Tim Crook, up to his usual one trick pony leadership.

 

[jasnw]

And I'm sure Apple will pass along the cost savings to its customers.

 

[dumastudetto]

Greedy old Tim Crook, up to his usual one trick pony leadership.

Yes greedy Tim Cook: keeping costs as low as possible to drive down on prices for customers.

 

[RyanXM]

With a price tag of $5999, you'd think that there would be enough "overhead" to pay an American worker a living wage to, at the very least, assemble these. The iMac we just bought for a client was assembled in Pennsylvania.

 

[eatrains]

America can't compete in manufacturing. That's just reality.

 

[dumastudetto]

And I'm sure Apple will pass along the cost savings to its customers.

They will have already factored in these savings in costs when setting the retail price.
The new Mac Pro would cost a lot more if it was "Made in the USA"

 

[vvs14]

Greedy old Tim Crook, up to his usual one trick pony leadership.

And you up to your usual one tone rant. Get over it. Cook has taken Apple from strength to strength. If you don't like what Apple has to offer, that's your own problem.

 

[danvdr]

I wonder if that was a discussion topic between Mr. Cook and President Trump a couple weeks ago.

 

[69Mustang]

Yes greedy Tim Cook: keeping costs as low as possible to drive down on prices for customers.

Apple keeping costs as low as possible has nothing to do with driving prices down for consumers. Don't even pretend as if that's actually a consideration.

 

[Jsameds]

Do people realise Apple is a company and not a charity?

Apparently not.

 

[dumastudetto]

With a price tag of $5999, you'd think that there would be enough "overhead" to pay an American worker a living wage to, at the very least, assemble these. The iMac we just bought for a client was assembled in Pennsylvania.

$5999 will help Apple achieve its target margin per unit sold. They will have factored the production costs savings when coming up with that price. If they were to do it in the USA, the price would be higher. Apple won't sacrifice margins.

 

[JetTester]

Hmm, let’s see, an instant 25% increase in cost by moving it to China. There must be some humongous cost savings in production to offset that.

 

[RyanXM]

And you up to your usual one tone rant. Get over it. Cook has taken Apple from strength to strength. If you don't like what Apple has to offer, that's your own problem.

Since Cook became CEO in 2011, only two senior VPs remain in their same titles: Cue/services and Schiller/marketing. Since Jobs died, Cook has changed SVPs of hardware, HW technologies, software, finance, legal, retail (3 times), operations (Williams now COO), and now design.

 

[Achiever]

Trump's 6:00 am tweet about this is gonna be LIT.

 

[RyanXM]

$5999 will help Apple achieve its target margin per unit sold. They will have factored the production costs savings when coming up with that price. If they were to do it in the USA, the price would be higher. Apple won't sacrifice margins.

I'm well aware of margins, considering I worked at the Fruit Stand for over 5 years. The price is high because of Chinese tariffs, not because they CAN'T/WON'T assemble these in the United States.

 

[JayMysterio]

With a price tag of $5999, you'd think that there would be enough "overhead" to pay an American worker a living wage to, at the very least, assemble these. The iMac we just bought for a client was assembled in Pennsylvania.

That's if Mac Pros were sold in numbers similar to the iMac, if not preferably Macbooks. I don't believe that is the case, with that price tag, and who the Mac Pro is targeted for.

 

[dumastudetto]

Apple keeping costs as low as possible has nothing to do with driving prices down for consumers. Don't even pretend as if that's actually a consideration.

Apple shoots for around 40% margin on these products. They stay remarkably consistent with this when reporting their financial results. If the production costs are higher, Apple will still want to hit its margin targets. This means the price would be higher.

 

[RyanXM]

That's if Mac Pros were sold in numbers similar to the iMac, if not preferably Macbooks. I don't believe that is the case, with that price tag, and who the Mac Pro is targeted for.

The same people who assemble iMacs have the skill set to assemble the Mac Pro, plain and simple.

 

[Freida]

When will people get it that USA can't compete anymore with China. Is it really that hard to get it?
Average hourly rate in US vs China - case closed.

Apparently not, delusional patriotism at work

Anyway, this was to be expected. The only option is another country in Asia. USA is no longer an option and hasn't been for a while.

 

[Bawstun]

Well, this is disgusting news. SHAME on Apple, shame.

 

[sw1tcher]

Quanta is said to be ramping up production of the new Mac Pro at a factory near Shanghai, and given lower wages and closer proximity to other Apple suppliers in Asia, the Chinese manufacturing is expected to cost Apple less than it would to make the computer in the United States.

Huge margins on a $1000 monitor stand not enough?

 

[dumastudetto]

I'm well aware of margins, considering I worked at the Fruit Stand for over 5 years. The price is high because of Chinese tariffs, not because they CAN'T/WON'T assemble these in the United States.

Then you should know if the labour costs are higher, the retail price will be higher too. It would cost more to assemble in the United States.

 

[JayMysterio]

The same people who assemble iMacs have the skill set to assemble the Mac Pro, plain and simple.

I thought the materials were the issue as well. If the cost of materials & labor are cheaper in China, Apple is obligated to their stock holders to produce the product as cheaply as possible for a profit.

 

[Jyby]

Science Rules!