While the viability of the Chinese economic model is called into question for various reasons (zero-covid policies, social protests, tensions between China and the United States), Apple is seeking, at all costs, to become less dependent on China to building its iPhones. But is it really possible?
Even if Apple finds it difficult to admit it, the construction of its devices is largely dependent on Chinese production chains. By assembling all the components together, the workers of Zhengzhou, the “iPhone city” or other Chinese megalopolises, are essential in the commercial strategy of the Apple brand. While for the first iPhone 3G from Apple, only 3% of its cost fell under a Chinese production activity, today, a quarter of the manufacturing cost of the new iPhones comes from the work carried out by chinese workers.
However, this growing dependence does not please the leaders of Apple. The existing tensions between China and the United States, China and Taiwan, or even more recently, the strong social protests born due to the zero-covid policy of the Chinese authorities, makes Apple particularly brittle. A shortage of iPhones during the US November sales attributed to strikes at iPhone assembly plants reminded Apple of its vulnerability vis-à-vis Chinese industrial hazards.
To read : China will soon no longer be the factory of the world
Vietnam and India, future central parts of Apple’s production lines?
Aware of this excessive dependence, the leaders of Apple have just made a change of course in their productivist policy. Additional apple brand factories located in India and Vietnam recently opened their doors. The forced relocation part of Apple’s production has therefore indeed been initiated. Vietnam, for example, very recently overtook the United Kingdom, becoming the seventh largest trading partner of the United States.
However, this strategic geographic shift takes time. In addition to training workers in the specific techniques used by Apple, it is also a question of completely changing the logistics of the American giant and its supply circuits. today alone 5% of Apple products are assembled outside of China. In 2025 this figure could reach 25%. An impressive increase but which means above all that ¾ of the products of the apple brand will remain produced in China.
Source : theatlantic.com
