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Apple said to start MacBook production at Foxconn’s Vietnam plant by mid-2023 in move to diversify supply chain outside China
- Apple supplier Foxconn is reportedly relocating some assembly of MacBooks at its plant in Vietnam’s northeastern Bac Giang province
- Before the shift to Vietnam, the MacBook remained the only major Apple product that was solely manufactured in mainland China
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Coco Fengin Beijing
Apple is reportedly relocating some production of MacBooks to Vietnam, a move that has been planned since 2020, with the initial batch of its popular laptop computers expected to roll out from the Southeast Asian country as early as May next year.
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Foxconn Technology Group, the world’s largest electronics manufacturing services provider, has been tapped by the US technology giant to assemble its MacBooks in Vietnam, according to a report on Tuesday by Nikkei Asia Review.
Before this move, the MacBook remained the only major Apple product that was solely manufactured in mainland China. It has taken longer to move MacBook assembly lines outside China owing to the product’s complex supply chain, the report said.
In November 2020, Taiwan-based Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, was reportedly planning to move some iPad and MacBook assembly to Vietnam from China at the request of Apple because of the escalating trade war between Beijing and Washington. Foxconn had earlier announced a US$270 million investment to set up a new subsidiary in Vietnam.
The new MacBook assembly lines are located at Foxconn’s plant in Vietnam’s northeastern Bac Giang province, situated 50 kilometres to the east of the country’s capital Hanoi.
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As of June, Foxconn employed about 60,000 people in Vietnam, which is now the company’s largest manufacturing base outside China.
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