Apple and many other companies rely heavily on China to make their products, but this has become a problem recently as the Asian country has been imposing lockdowns and other political restrictions that affect the production of these companies. In an attempt to reduce its dependence on China, Apple is now diversifying its suppliers and will now increase orders from a Taiwanese company.
Apple wants to reduce its dependence on Chinese suppliers
As reported by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, AOET will begin shipping lenses for the iPad starting in the second half of 2023. Currently, AOET is the largest supplier of lenses for the Mac. The analyst notes that AOET “could follow in the footsteps of Sunny Optical,” as the company first supplied parts for the iPad and eventually obtained orders for iPhone parts.
But the real news here according to Kuo is how Apple plans to use AOET, which is a Taiwanese company, to continue moving forward with its plan to reduce dependence on Chinese suppliers in the long term. Slowly, Apple has been migrating its production line to other countries.
Back in December, multiple reports revealed that Apple is considering producing the iPad in India for the first time, since the iPhone is already produced there. A few days ago, an Indian company started supplying AirPods parts to Apple. Apple has also been moving production of Apple Watch and MacBooks to Vietnam, while some iPhone models are also assembled in Brazil.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has been imposing severe lockdowns on the country with a “zero-COVID” policy. This has led to many factories in the country closing their doors for extended periods of time, which has impacted supplies for companies like Apple. At the same time, political disputes between China and Taiwan have also threatened the supply of parts for electronic devices.
9to5Mac’s Take
At this point, it seems impossible for Apple to cut its total dependence on China. However, considering how much the company has been impacted with supply issues in the past two years, plans to diversify its supply chain are certainly valid and promising.
Perhaps at some point in the future, Apple will have enough suppliers around the world to not be impacted by the whole situation happening in China.
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