Apple Sticks with Asia Supply Chain

If you haven’t reconsidered your supply chain recently, are you even a multinational corporation?

As other companies consider pulling out of China, Apple is staying the course. The company may be reducing its dependence on main supplier Foxconn, but it’s still sticking with suppliers in China and neighboring Taiwan. Apple is asking Chinese supplier Luxshare, which already assembles AirPods, to invest in iPhone and MacBook metal case manufacturing, Nikkei reported this week.

• Apple not only needs China for manufacturing, but the country and its 1.3 billion consumers comprise Apple’s second largest consumer market.

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The U.S., Japan, and the EU are actively developing schemes to reshore domestic companies’ manufacturing from China. Case in point: TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, will build an advanced foundry in Arizona. The plant, equipped to manufacture the most advanced chips with 5-nanometer transistors, will be production-ready in 2023 at the earliest.

+ While we’re here: Yesterday, Apple published its Supplier Responsibility progress report, which includes new practices to protect employees during COVID-19.