Apple accelerates plans to move more manufacturing out of China

Apple’s global supply chain management strategy appears to be shifting quickly to reduce its dependence on China for iPhone and MacBook product assembly.

The move is part of a larger trend toward deglobalization, or reducing interdependence between business units distributed throughout the world, according to Ming-Chi Kuo, an Apple analyst with financial services firm TF International Securities.

Over the next three to five years, at least the for the US market, from 25% to 30% of global iPhone shipments can be supplied by assembly sites located outside of China to reduce potential impacts from political risks (such as US-China tariffs), Kuo wrote in a tweet last month. Longer term, Kuo said, China will likely be the major assembly point for its own in-country Apple product sales, but not for global product supplies.

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