Apple will begin producing MacBooks in Vietnam for the first time next year

Apple plans to begin producing MacBooks in Vietnam for the first time in 2023, according to Nikkei Asia. This is part of the tech giant’s attempts to diversify its production facilities beyond China.

Nikkei Asia says Apple manufacturing partner, Foxconn, will tart making MacBooks in the Southeast Asian nation as early as around May. Apple has been working to add production sites outside of China for all of its major product lines, but doing so for the final one, the MacBook, has taken longer due to the complex supply chain needed for making laptop computers, the article adds.

“After the MacBook production shifts, all of Apple’s flagship products basically will have one more production location beyond China … iPhones in India and MacBooks, the Apple Watch and iPads in Vietnam,” one unnamed “person with direct knowledge of the matter” told Nikkei Asia. “What Apple wants now is an ‘out of China’ option for at least part of production for all of its products.”

In August it was announced that Foxconn has signed a $300 million memorandum of understanding with Vietnamese developer Kinh Bac City to expand its facility in the north of the country to diversify and boost production. From the Reuters report: Fowhich has been in Bac Giang for 15 years, has moved part of its iPad and AirPods production to Bac Giang’s Quang Chau Industrial Park, Tuoi Tre reported. It did not say which type of products would be produced at the new factory or its capacity. The Vietnamese government said last year Foxconn had invested $1.5 billion in the Southeast Asian country.