Apple to Begin Manufacturing MacBooks in Vietnam in 2023

Continuing its efforts to diversify its production base amid the escalating tensions between the U.S. and China, Apple is planning to move some MacBook production to Vietnam by mid of 2023 (via Nikkei Asia).

Citing sources familiar with the matter, the report claims that Apple’s top assembler Foxconn will start assembling MacBooks in the Southeast Asian country as early as May next year.

While Apple has already moved a part of its iPhone and iPad production outside China in recent years, moving MacBook production has taken longer due to the complex supply chain requirements.

“After the MacBook production shifts, all of Apple’s flagship products basically will have one more production location beyond China … iPhones in India and MacBooks, the Apple Watch and iPads in Vietnam,” said one source.

“What Apple wants now is an ‘out of China’ option for at least part of production for all of its products,” the source added.

“Overall, China’s benefits in terms of low-cost manufacturing are fading and many U.S. clients now want some production location alternatives outside of China,” said an executive at Inventec, a key supplier to HP and Dell. “This is already an accelerating trend for almost all global brands and it will not likely change going forward.”

China’s strict Covid policies have accelerated the shift, and it is now happening faster than industry executives and market analysts thought a few years ago

Production of most U.S.-bound data center servers made for Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft, for example, has also moved to Taiwan, Mexico, or Thailand.