AirPods Pro Starting to Be Assembled in Vietnam

Good. Gotta diversify their supply chain away from China.

Glad they are diversifying their supply chain out of China. Hopefully all major companies follow suit.

I'm not going to buy anything 'Made In China' anymore. It's quite tough and companies like Samsung need to advertise their products are made in Korea. Apple and Microsoft need to do the same.

Well done Tim Apple!

I'm not going to buy anything 'Made In China' anymore. It's quite tough and companies like Samsung need to advertise their products are made in Korea. Apple and Microsoft need to do the same.

I mean you can't buy pretty much anything at all in that case. I bet even the on these 'assembled in Vietnam' products the majority of the component supply chain operates in China.

Some of the posts in here suggest that even if the writers have enough dough to buy a dozen sets of AirPods they wouldn't think of dropping a few bucks into an eye opening subscription to either the Financial Times or the Wall St. Journal.

But carry on. Always interesting to see how long a thread like this can persist on unvoiced political opinions (wrong forum for that, eh?!) rather than on anything to do with either the cost of doing business in the era of global trade or the diplomatic and political considerations of supply chains in East Asia... where China has more influence now than does the USA.... and where China has been engaged for some time in studying how to reduce its own reliance on US technology for the good of its own supply chains and economy... and where Vietnam is still playing catch-up.

Oh and by the way for those unaware, Vietnam is also definitely run by a distinctly communist government that enthusiastically uses a modified form of capitalism to conduct business and help its economy and citizens prosper.

So for those fascinated by abandoning US conduct of business in China primarily because the current US head of state has been engaged in a trade war with Xi, far be it from me to suggest moving this thread over to PRSI, but don't forget who won the right to form a government in a reunified Vietnam when the American war was over. It wasn't France, nor the USA, nor the erstwhile colonialist puppet government of South Vietnam. The main difference between China's president and Vietnam's prime minister is how many citizens say "how high" when either one of those heads of state says "jump". And as Americans have already learned in both countries, that can apply to managers of foreign manufacturing companies that locate supply chains in either one.

Both of these Asian countries (as well as Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and dare I say Taiwan as well) are interested in competitive economic partnerships with the USA and not in being subsumed by any particular US flavor of the month politics. I'd assume that's the case for US companies too, whether considering their business abroad or at home.

Most of us are not CEOs of American behemoths with supply chains in Asia. Talking about moving them is cheap. Way cheaper than getting up to speed on the subject anyway, eh?


Well this one's free for the looking (aka second hand reporting off a paywalled piece)

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/29/china-is-reportedly-studying-tech-companies-reliance-on-us-suppliers.html


For those inclined to shell out for a subscription to the FT

https://www.ft.com/content/fddc2a32-50e1-11ea-90ad-25e377c0ee1f


or the WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/articles/for-manufacturers-in-china-breaking-up-is-hard-to-do-11566397989

Anywhere but China. It's going to be rough making that transition, especially in places like Amazon. I'm glad Trump started holding China accountable for their biased trade agreements. There was lots of crying when he started doing that a few years back but now everyone's eyes have been opened and it's plain to see it was the right move. At this point, if we start to lose China, it will force US companies to source elsewhere.

Let it begin.