In 2013, Cupertino-based technology giant Apple had announced that it will begin assembling its high-end desktop in the US. Even though most of its manufacturing is out of the country as of now, Apple had said that it will be making use of its Texas plant to produce the Mac Pro.
We should mention that the announcement that was made back then, was followed up by another one at the WWDC 2019 that made many think if Apple has any plans of coming back to Austin. While the company remained tight-lipped on its plans at that time, a report has surfaced online on The Wall Street Journal says that the desktop will be manufactured by Quanta Computer Inc in a plant that is outside Shanghai.
The Cupertino-based technology giant has not denied the report that quotes “people familiar with its plans.” When questioned about the matter, a company spokesperson said, “Like all of our products, the new Mac Pro is designed and engineered in California and includes components from several countries including the United States. We’re proud to support manufacturing facilities in 30 US states and last year we spent $60 billion with over 9,000 suppliers across the US. Our investment and innovation supports 2 million American jobs. Final assembly is only one part of the manufacturing process.”
We should point out that the report comes at a particularly sensitive time for the US’ relations with China as a trade war has been going on between the two countries. Apple has also been facing the impact of tariffs on components as far as its international sales go.
In 2018, Apple CEO Tim Cook also said that he had met with President Donald Trump and told him that the tariffs were “the wrong move.”
Recently, a report surfaced online on Nikkei that claims that Apple is planning to move around 15-30% of its hardware manufacturing out of China. The report also added that the company has a special team that is particularly looking at moving production. The reason behind doing this is also the ongoing trade war between the United States and China. The company is also said to have told its manufacturing partners to evaluate all the options.
Speaking on the matter, an Apple supplier told Nikkei, “A lower birthrate, higher labor costs and the risk of overly centralizing its production in one country. These adverse factors are not going anywhere… with or without the final round of the $300 billion tariff.”
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