Apple's new Mac Pro is being manufactured in China
After six years of manufacturing the cylindrical Mac Pro in Texas, Apple has shifted production of the new Mac Pro abroad to China, even as trade tensions escalate between the U.S. and China.
Apple's Mac Pro was the company's only major device assembled in the United States. The move comes as a surprise, as Apple faces increased tariffs on products imported to the U.S. from China. The tariffs would affect all of Apple's products, including the iPhone, iPad, and all Mac computers.
Apple has signed with contractor Quanta Computer Inc., a company that has worked with Apple in the past, to manufacture their new Mac Pro. Quanta Computer has begun increasing production at a factory near Shanghai.
The decision is likely influenced by Quanta's distance to other Apple suppliers across Asia, making it possible to achieve lower shipping costs than if components were shipped from the United States. Analysts have stated that any move Apple would make to move production out of China would take multiple years.
Apple had previously invested $100 million in tooling and other equipment for Flex Ltd., a manufacturing plant in Austin Texas, hoping to be able to shift some production back to the U.S. at the behest of policy makers. However, this has proved to be an expensive investment, and most Apple products are still primarily manufactured in China to keep production costs lower.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a spokesperson at Apple said the new Mac Pro is designed and engineered in the U.S., and includes U.S.-made parts. Apple also stated that it supports manufacturing in 30 U.S. states and spent $60 billion last year with over 9,000 U.S. suppliers.
Flex and Quanta have so far declined to comment on the matter.
Flex workers will likely not be affected as the company has pivoted to refurbishing ready-made computers and has open contracts with HP Inc. and other companies, according to former Flex employees.
Apple's Mac Pro was the company's only major device assembled in the United States. The move comes as a surprise, as Apple faces increased tariffs on products imported to the U.S. from China. The tariffs would affect all of Apple's products, including the iPhone, iPad, and all Mac computers.
Apple has signed with contractor Quanta Computer Inc., a company that has worked with Apple in the past, to manufacture their new Mac Pro. Quanta Computer has begun increasing production at a factory near Shanghai.
The decision is likely influenced by Quanta's distance to other Apple suppliers across Asia, making it possible to achieve lower shipping costs than if components were shipped from the United States. Analysts have stated that any move Apple would make to move production out of China would take multiple years.
Apple had previously invested $100 million in tooling and other equipment for Flex Ltd., a manufacturing plant in Austin Texas, hoping to be able to shift some production back to the U.S. at the behest of policy makers. However, this has proved to be an expensive investment, and most Apple products are still primarily manufactured in China to keep production costs lower.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a spokesperson at Apple said the new Mac Pro is designed and engineered in the U.S., and includes U.S.-made parts. Apple also stated that it supports manufacturing in 30 U.S. states and spent $60 billion last year with over 9,000 U.S. suppliers.
Flex and Quanta have so far declined to comment on the matter.
Flex workers will likely not be affected as the company has pivoted to refurbishing ready-made computers and has open contracts with HP Inc. and other companies, according to former Flex employees.
Comments
Many have said time and again. It would be far too expensive for Apple to build here in mass quantities. The would be completely priced outlet of every market including the US.
The US has the best design minds and facilities, China has the best manufacturing infrastructure. A company like Apple needs factories who can provide volume. You can thank Bubya Junior making the US so dependent on China.
Anyone who has (over)paid for Apple installed memory knows this is SOP.
As to the assembly in China, making things in the US is expensive and the workforce does not produce in such a way to justify the cost. The US auto industry is migrating out of the country just like everything else over the last 50 years. Daimler’s Mercedes and VW’s Audi are joining BMW in making luxury cars for the US in Mexico. A rather large portion of Chevrolet, GMC and Ram (Dodge) pickup trucks are now made in Mexico. There is no discernible difference in quality but there is a huge difference in labor costs.
To be honest, in much of the US the labor pool for assembly line labor is inferior to that which can be easily found elsewhere.
I suppose Apple could have the $999 stand manufactured in America to avoid tariffs on that component. I'm sure American can manufacture a metal stand.
And yes, Apple is in China to stay.
More interesting to me is considering if this is a “tell”, with Apple tipping it’s hand on where it thinks the Trump/China trade war is heading. IMHO, President Trump has one chance to win re-election, and that is to put this trade war to bed fairly soon with a “win”, i.e., something he can at least paint as a win (see recent Mexico outcome). Apple may be betting on the same outcome. At worst, they’ll have to endure a tariff that will only hurt until President Trump is out of office.
So making the right cost savings decision now both makes their product more affordable and shows the Chinese they aren’t going anywhere soon.
You’re quite correct that assembling (which is what was actually done in the US wrt the 2013 Mac Pro) is only part of the manufacturing process, not the whole of it — most of the guts were created outside the US. That said, Apple does spend a lot of money on US makers too — as the company says, about $60B a year. That’s not huge compared to what it spends with Foxconn, but it is a substantial amount of money.
The disadvantage of moving manufacturing to other countries isn’t so much a loss of jobs as it is a suppression of wages — most people are making the same amount of money they made 20 years ago, which means they are actually making less thanks to the corrosion of their buying power.
Anyway, to drag this back on topic — by the time Apple does another major redesign of the Mac Pro, it will be made entirely by robots, so in the meantime I hope the government figures out what to do with the labour pool whose jobs are being/will be replaced. UBI seems to be the best option at this point, but other ideas are also welcome.
Grrrr, mean old Apple have kicked me out of the iPod Touch! What a bunch of bastards!
LOL some people really advertise their foolishness, don’t they?
By way of illustration, please do find me a workstation that is as close as possible to the Mac Pro in specs, ports, and software, and yet priced far below the base cost.
Go ahead, I’ll wait.
They also typically can cost companies 10%~20% less than what Dell/HP/Lenovo's websites show and are actually on the market today, and not in a few months when new and refreshed models are due.
Apple is not even close to offering that type of value.