Apple expanding supplier base in China, Southeast Asia, and India
As manufacturers embark on massive relocation efforts to build a more resilient supply chain, Apple is expanding its supplier base in most Asian countries.
According to the latest Apple supplier list, the number of manufacturing facilities/locations of Apple’s top 200 suppliers grew in 2022 in China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and India. However, manufacturing facilities/locations in the US and South Korea have dropped from 72 to 62 and 42 to 36, respectively.
The latest list shows that Apple’s supplier base in South and Southeast Asia is growing amid Apple’s diversification move. Meanwhile, Apple keeps expanding its reliance on China, a sign that Apple is likely to prepare for a decoupled global manufacturing ecosystem.
Due to Apple’s change of methodology, disclosing only “locations” instead of “facilities,” the numbers of certain geographies, including Taiwan, cannot be compared historically. For example, Apple said that TSMC had five “facilities” globally in 2021 but had three manufacturing “locations” globally in 2022. The methodology change led to fewer listed manufacturing locations of Apple suppliers in Taiwan, from 72 to 41.
Furthermore, Apple changed its methodology regarding Puerto Rico and labeled it under the United States in the latest list instead of under Puerto Rico in 2021.
Some China-based manufacturers joined the Apple top 200 supplier list, including Consumer HK Holdco II Limited, Bichamp Cutting Technology, Shenzhen Forceblack Technology, Sunny Optical, and Zhuhai CosMX Battery.
Taiwan-based Inventec, Kinsus Interconnect Technology, and Ko Jia did not make it into the latest Apple supplier list, while Platinum Optics, Primax, Radiant Opto-Electronics, and Winbond Electronics joined the ranks of suppliers.
In India, Apple added Molex, Onsemi, and Shenzhen Everwin Prevision Technology to its top 200 supplier list as Apple continues to require manufacturers to invest in India, except for Wistron, which is in talks to sell its iPhone manufacturing business to Tata. Although Tata has begun assembling iPhone SEs and the trial production of iPhone 15, Tata is not included in the latest list as the list only discloses the top 200, not all, suppliers of Apple.
