Analyst: Apple wants to reduce its reliance on China-based manufacturers

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo tweets that Apple is looking into ways to reduce its reliance on Chinese companies that manufacture its products.

His tweet: Apple’s new product introduction (NPI) sites are almost in China. It was the first time for Apple to evaluate building NPI sites in non-China seriously when the COVID-19 outbreak first occurred about two years ago, but internally it only proceeded to the proposal stage. However, after the recent lockdowns in China, to diversify supply chain management risks, building NPI sites in non-China is no longer a proposal but an action plan.

Half of Apple’s 200 top suppliers — including Pegatron, Compal Electronics — have facilities in and around Shanghai, where COVID-related lockdowns and traffic restrictions “are disrupting a wide swathe of business activities,” according to a Nikkei Asia analysis yesterday.

More than 70 companies own manufacturing plants in the  Jiangsu Province that directly supply the U.S. tech giant, according to an analysis of Apple’s latest available Supplier List. The majority of these are in Kunshan and Suzhou, the two cities near Shanghai. A further 30 or so Apple suppliers have facilities in Shanghai itself, the latest epicenter of the COVID-19 surge in China.