Apple Continues to Shift Production Out of China

Apple stepped up a transfer of some production out of China. The company advised suppliers to assemble products in markets including India and Vietnam to diversify their supply chains.

The supply chains have been racked by widespread protests fuelled by the Chinese zero-COVID-19 policy. According to an undisclosed source, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported some unnamed clients asked contract manufacturer Luxshare Precision Industry to handle more assembly outside of mainland China. Apple is also looking to reduce its dependency on Hon Hai Precision (Foxconn) by spreading out work among a larger base of suppliers.

The output of iPhones was slowed by major disruptions at Foxconn’s largest facility in China, which is the primary assembly facility for the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max models. Kuo Ming-Chi, an Apple analyst with TF International Securities, estimated in a tweet output of the two models will be 15 million to 20 million less in Q4 than forecast.