Apple mulls transfer of iPhone production to Vietnam or India after violent protests, riots in China factory

Apple, the maker of iPhones, is reportedly considering moving to either Vietnam or India as the workers’ protest in China continues to escalate. Riots broke out due to the zero-COVID policies at the iPhone factory in the country.

Violent protests developed due to the stiff regulations being implemented by the Chinese government. Media outlets around the world also caught the scenes when the protesters were hurling metal barricades at the security officers in hazmat suits as they revolted over COVID restriction concerns at the Apple plant.

With the chaos, Apple is said to be looking to move its business out of China. As per Fox Business, if the transfer pushes through, it will also reduce the dependence on Taiwanese electronics suppliers such as Foxconn, which also owns the facility in Zhengzhou, where the iPhone factory is located.

There were reports that even Foxconn itself may also transfer its business outside of mainland China. It is not clear if Apple will be able to gain full independence in its iPhone City, which also houses around 300,000 workers. This plant is believed to produce 85% of the iPhone Pro models at some point.

Then again, the latest decision to move out is not related to the dependence issue, but this time, it is because of the unrest in the facility stemming from the pandemic, strained geopolitical relations between the U.S. and China, and supply chain issues.

"In the past, people did not pay attention to concentration risks," a former U.S. executive at Foxconn, Alan Yeung, told the Wall Street Journal. "Free trade was the norm and things were very predictable and now we have entered a new world."

In any case, Business Insider reported that the latest upheaval‘s impact on Apple's income resulted in a sense of urgency to move production away from China which has dominated manufacturing for Apple for a long time now.

Apple is now planning to source about 45% of production from Indian factories, where it is currently producing just a small number of products. The company may also work up the manufacturing of smartwatches, AirPods, and computers in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, in a new development, Foxconn said it is now restoring production at the iPhone factory, which is also the largest in the world. The Apple supplier shared it is now slowly resuming capacity at the facility that. At this point, it is unclear if the iPhone maker will still proceed with its plans to move out.

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