Apple's Notebook Case Supplier to Reopen Plant by End of October

[MacRumors]

Last week, it was revealed that Catcher Technology, Apple's primary unibody aluminum case supplier for the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, had halted some production at its Chinese plant over pollution concerns. One report had indicated that Catcher was investing $2-3 million in addressing the issues, aiming to resume production sometime next month.

Reuters briefly reports, however, that Catcher has been able to move even more quickly, with full production set to resume by the end of this month.

Catcher Technology , a casing supplier for Apple Inc , said on Wednesday its China plant will be fully reopened at end of this month.

Catcher, which reportedly supplies about 60% of Apple's demand for notebook shells, had previously reported that the production halt would result in a 20% decrease in its October sales.

Article Link: Apple's Notebook Case Supplier to Reopen Plant by End of October

 

[kjs862]

Let's hope for a case redesign in the near future!

 

[Shrink]

Let's hope for a case redesign in the near future!

Serious question - what kind of re-design?

I think the current design of the MBP and MBA is great looking. How would you change them, beyond dropping the Optical Drive in the MBP to make it thinner?

 

[dolphin842]

Last week, it was revealed that Catcher Technology, Apple's primary unibody aluminum case supplier for the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, had halted some production at its Chinese plant over pollution concerns.

Anyone have details on what the pollution problems were, exactly?

 

[FrizzleFryBen]

Serious question - what kind of re-design?

I think the current design of the MBP and MA is great looking. How would you change them, beyond dropping the Optical Drive in the MBP to make it thinner?

Perfect! I'll take it! 15" MBA with a quad core i7 and 256GB SSD

 

[daxomni]

Let's hope for a case redesign in the near future!

I was going to hope for a less polluted future, but I supposed a new case would be just as good.

 

[flottenheimer]

Anyone have details on what the pollution problems were, exactly?

I'd love to know as well. Apple has been pretty busy 'greening' and green-washing ever since Greenpeace turned their attention towards them.

They need to continue their carbon- and pollution-cutting mission. They need to be really, really serious about this stuff.

They could look to Patagonia(R) for inspiration...

 

[mkrishnan]

Anyone have details on what the pollution problems were, exactly?

Reports in Western media were simply that there was some kind of odor coming from the plant, and nearby residents complained, prompting the government to ask them to shut down and figure it out. So it could be that whatever was causing the problem was easier to identify / fix than anticipated? (It could also be a wide variety of things). It doesn't seem like it was shut down for a known pattern of ongoing environmental misbehavior, so whatever they did to fix it might not be a huge improvement on the plant's environmental vitae.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Serious question - what kind of re-design?

Good question!

I think the current design of the MBP and MBA is great looking. How would you change them, beyond dropping the Optical Drive in the MBP to make it thinner?

No major redesign in 2012. It is too early. Or do you think Professionals are happy with a 256 GB (blade) SSD in a thinner 17" MBP?

 

[MrSmith]

Reports in Western media were simply that there was some kind of odor coming from the plant...

They discovered it was lunch.

 

[Inconsequential]

Perfect! I'll take it! 15" MBA with a quad core i7 and 256GB SSD

They can barely cool the quads in the current MBPs, let alone in something thinner, so no, that WONT happen given they can't even get a quad in the 13" yet.

Personally I don't want the MBP to become MBA thin.

The MBA should be 11, 13 & 15" and thin.
The MBP should be 13, 15 & 17" and powerful with bigger battery thanks to no CD drive.

 

[mkrishnan]

They discovered it was lunch.

LOL maybe it was oregano, and it smelled so much unlike soy sauce that they panicked.

Well, hopefully in the long run this leads towards better environmental protection. It's ridiculous if Apple sells an aluminum casing on being recyclable to Western customers, and meanwhile manufacturing that casing in the East is far worse environmentally than if the case were manufactured in a "clean" plant but could not be recycled.

 

[Kbachand]

There is definitely going to be a case redesign in 2012 (in my opinion). Apple already filed a patent for a slimmer superdrive and it actually looks pretty good. I think they are trying to time the release just right so that they can integrate Intel's Ivy-Bridge processors.

 

[FuFuFu]

Hopefully ... but MacBookPros got no real love in the past.

 

[EJ257]

The MBP should be 13, 15 & 17" and powerful with bigger battery thanks to no CD drive.

I'll take one. Take out the CD drive, do a little internal rearrangement and you have room for a much larger battery. Just please keep the weight about the same.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

LOL maybe it was oregano, and it smelled so much unlike soy sauce that they panicked.

Well, hopefully in the long run this leads towards better environmental protection. It's ridiculous if Apple sells an aluminum casing on being recyclable to Western customers, and meanwhile manufacturing that casing in the East is far worse environmentally than if the case were manufactured in a "clean" plant but could not be recycled.

It was one, or possibly two, things. It was either the coolant for the milling machines or what they use to clean the coolant off the finished parts.

Some of the coolant has a nasty odor and the cleaner/solvents they may be using can cause strong odors and nasty contamination.

I was a sub on an IT project at a manufacturer in central Michigan and noticed that everyone carried bottles of water in with them. Then I asked one of the techs and we said that it was because the water out of the tap is so contaminated, it's undrinkable. People also took their mugs home to wash because the water was so bad there. They were in a very rural area and since the plant had been there for 50/60 years, and they dumped coolants and solvents on the ground and routinely had leaks in their waste tanks, the ground water all around the plant was just nasty. They didn't seem concerned about it at all which, aside from the lackadaisical opinion on the leaking chemicals, I found very incredibly tragically disturbingly odd... It's almost like they would have gladly given up their health for a job. I found that stunning... I tipped the state off to the mess and they still, after 8+ years, to my knowledge, have not investigated at all which I found disgusting. They busted a guy for dumping his used motor oil in his backyard and sent him to jail, and won't investigate a corporation that has literally dumped poisons on the ground and is killing the town. Go figure... And what's that PR campaign for Michigan? "Pure Michigan"? If you don't mind the contaminated water...

 

[dolphin842]

Reports in Western media were simply that there was some kind of odor coming from the plant, and nearby residents complained, prompting the government to ask them to shut down and figure it out. So it could be that whatever was causing the problem was easier to identify / fix than anticipated? (It could also be a wide variety of things). It doesn't seem like it was shut down for a known pattern of ongoing environmental misbehavior, so whatever they did to fix it might not be a huge improvement on the plant's environmental vitae.

APM's Marketplace had a story this Monday on the plant closure. The plant has since reopened, but the pollution still persists and it looks like local residents are being told not to talk to reporters:

Earlier this month, [deputy director of the environmental protection bureau of Kunshan] Ding Yudong spoke to state-run television in China about the harmful chemicals emitted from that factory. So we called Ding to find out more. And that's when he told Marketplace what Apple's been keeping secret for months: the Kaedar factory is making Apple products -- and it's broken environmental law in the process.

Ding says last month, his bureau shut down 10 production lines at Kaedar's factory-lines, he said, that were spraying a chemical coating onto Apple products and products for other companies, too. He said the chemical spray was harmful to the people living nearby.

When we approached Apple, the company again refused to confirm whether the Kaedar factory makes its products.

I recently returned to Tongxin village to see if things had changed since Kaedar shut down the production lines. This time, nobody wanted to talk to me. Some people hid in their homes when they saw me.

When I ask two men about the pollution, they say, "What pollution?' There's no pollution here." Another man said he and others who spoke to journalists have been threatened -- he angrily accused me of working for Apple.

I ask one woman if she's been threatened. "I don't know," she says nervously.

But then Dong Qiaozhen invites me inside her house.

Dong Qiaozhen: Yes, we've been threatened. Village officials have warned us not to talk to reporters about the pollution.

 

[mkrishnan]

Go figure... And what's that PR campaign for Michigan? "Pure Michigan"? If you don't mind the contaminated water...

Yes, Michigan is going to be cleaning up for a long time from prior industrial activities (although I've never lived any place in Michigan where drinking water was unsafe). I think China is a lot worse, though, from my understanding. I haven't been there, but I think it's worth considering the sheer size of what they're doing industrially and the state of their environmental protections.

APM's Marketplace had a story this Monday on the plant closure. The plant has since reopened, but the pollution still persists and it looks like local residents are being told not to talk to reporters:

Yes, interesting. To clarify, what I meant was that the plant was not closed by authorities because of a desire to solve big, systemic environmental problems. I don't mean that they didn't exist at the plant -- I mean just that it was closed down for something more minor, and so I didn't expect anything to be done about the larger problem because of the closing.

It's going to be interesting to see how sustainability plays out and how much pollution are generated in India and China by the time they've reached a state of reasonable development in the next few decades. And if and when Africa starts truly developing, we're going to be going through this whole thing again.