China continues to lead the world in industrial robotics, installing a record 295,000 robots in 2024 alone, which accounts for over half of all global installations. This growth is part of a global increase in industrial robots, with total new installations reaching 542,000 units worldwide, a 9% rise from 2023. 

With 2.03 million robots now in operation, China has the largest industrial robot fleet in the world, far ahead of Japan (450,000), the United States (400,000), and South Korea (392,000).

The widespread adoption of robots is helping China maintain high production efficiency in key industries such as automotive manufacturing, electronics assembly, and logistics. These machines handle tasks like welding, heavy material movement, and precise assembly, reducing reliance on human labor for repetitive jobs.

Automation to Counter Population Decline

China’s growing use of robots comes at a time of demographic challenges. In 2024, the country’s population fell by 1.39 million people, contributing to a shrinking workforce. Experts believe that automation is essential to sustain manufacturing output despite fewer workers. Professor Gao Xudong from Tsinghua University notes that while simple and repetitive tasks will increasingly be done by robots, complex and creative work will still rely on human skills.

Looking ahead, China faces a projected shortage of 50 million high-skilled blue-collar workers by 2030, particularly in areas like robot operation, programming, and maintenance. Workforce training is seen as critical to support the next phase of intelligent manufacturing.

Global Leadership in Production and Innovation

China is not just a major consumer of robots; it has also become the world’s largest producer of industrial robots, surpassing Japan in 2024. Its share of global production increased from 25% in 2023 to one-third in 2024. Local manufacturing of key components like motors, sensors, gears, and controllers allows Chinese companies to scale robotics at lower costs. Companies like Xiaomi and BYD operate fully automated “dark factories,” demonstrating China’s growing expertise in smart manufacturing.

The Rise of Humanoid Robots

China is also moving into humanoid robotics. In 2024, Guangdong-based Tiantai Robot received an order for 10,000 humanoid robots, mainly for elderly care services. This marks a shift from research and development to commercial deployment of human-like robots, signaling the next frontier in automation.

Implications for the Global Market

China’s robotics surge highlights a significant gap between it and other nations, especially the United States, which installed only 34,200 robots in 2024. Analysts warn that China’s scale of deployment creates a “flywheel effect,” generating valuable data to refine AI and robotics further. Experts say the U.S. must invest in physical robotics alongside its AI software strengths to remain competitive in global manufacturing.

China’s dominance in industrial robotics reflects a strategic use of automation to offset labor shortages, strengthen manufacturing, and lead innovation. While robot adoption is accelerating, the development of skilled workers remains essential to sustain long-term industrial growth.

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(via)

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Nothing has officially confirmed that the Phone (2a) will be made in India. The company is gearing up to unveil the new smartphone soon, but ahead of its release, the Phone (2a)’s Indian manufacturing was announced.

Nothing Phone (2a) will be ‘Made in India’

The London based startup is turning to local manufacturing in the Indian market. This move will not only help create more jobs but enable the brand to grow its investment in the region. The upcoming Nothing Phone (2a) will be made in the manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu, a State in South India. To recall, the Nothing Phone (1) and Phone (2) were also manufactured locally in the past.

Notably, Nothing Phone (2a)’s global launch will be held in India. The brand will set up a live stream for the announcement and also host an in-person event in New Delhi. Popular Indian Actor Ranveer Singh was also confirmed as the brand’s face for its products. For those unaware, the Nothing Phone (2a) is set to launch with a custom Dimensity 7200 Pro SoC that was co-developed with.

The company is gearing up to unveil the smartphone on 5th March 2024. Furthermore, its entire design was also recently revealed. The brand is even gearing up to unveil CMF Neckband Pro and CMF Buds as well, so stick around for more as we will be covering the launch event tomorrow.

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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, popularly known as TSMC, is setting up a new production plan in Arizona, United States at a cost of around $12 billion.

The plant was originally planned to manufacture 5nm chips but recently it was revealed that the plant will be making 4nm chips. Now, a new report from Taiwanese media claims that the production of 4nm chips in the Arizona plant could start next year.

According to the report from Economic Daily, TSMC’s new plant in Arizona will start producing 4nm chips from 2024. The report further adds that Qualcomm’s Global Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Chen Ruowen said that Qualcomm will be the first customer of TSMC’s US plant’s 4nm chips.

It was earlier reported that AMD and NVIDIA were among the companies that urged TSMC to start making 4nm chips in the US. The development comes at a time when companies are now planning to source chips manufactured in the United States. Further, this new plant should also allow a whole host of new companies and jobs to appear in support of the manufacturing facility.

Apart from Qualcomm, Apple, AMD, and NVIDIA are also expected to place a large order for the chips manufactured by TSMC in the Arizona facility. In the second phase of the upgrade at the Arizona plant, TSMC will upgrade the facility to produce more advanced 3nm chips, which is likely to happen around 2026.

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Via

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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, aka TSMC, which is the world’s largest foundry, is all set to start the mass production of its 3nm chips this week.

Apple, which is among the top customers for the Taiwan-based company, will be the primary customer for the chips manufactured using this new process and will be a part of the tech giant’s M2 lineup.

As per the report, TSMC will start mass production of 3nm chips on 29th December, Thursday, which is in line with the previous reports, which indicated that the company could start mass production of the 3nm node process by the end of the year.

It is said that TSMC will hold a ceremony at Fab 18 at the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) on December 29 to mark the start of commercial production of chips using 3nm process technology. It will also detail plans to expand 3nm chip production at the fab, according to sources at semiconductor equipment companies.

For Apple, before the A17 Bionic chip for the upcoming iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Ultra models, the Cupertino-based company is expected to place orders for the 3nm M2 Pro chip, which will be powering the upcoming MacBook Pro and the Mini Mini. Both these chips, A17 Bionic and M2 Pro, are expected to ship later next year.

Samsung is also able to mass produce 3nm chips using Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistors, allowing more precise control of current flow through each transistor and improved power efficiency. TSMC will be using FinFET transistors for the 3nm node but will adopt GAA transistors for the 2nm chips, which is likely to happen in 2025.

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Apple started exploring options to move more production outside of China a few years back as the technology giant is working on reducing its reliance on China for manufacturing products.

While the Cupertino-based giant has already moved a portion of iPhone production to India, a new report from CNBC claims that Apple is now also discussing moving some iPad manufacturing to India.

As per the report, the company is currently in talks with Indian officials, but that are many hurdles that Apple needs to overcome for the plan to materialize, including having manufacturing expertise for the iPad models.

It has been emphasized that there are no concrete plans as of now, but the discussions about the possibility are ongoing. Since Apple is keen on expanding its manufacturing to other countries outside of China, iPad production could start in India if the issues are addressed.

But the path for this to happen isn’t easy as India lacks “highly skilled talent and individuals with expertise in building highly complex devices,” which could slow down Apple’s efforts, claims the report.

Apple has been manufacturing devices in India since 2017, when it began production of some older iPhone models, and since then, the company has been slowly expanding its production. The newly launched iPhone 14 models are the first flagship phones that are being manufactured in India.

Last week, it was reported that Apple has been working to reduce its presence in China for many years and has accelerated the plans to shift more production outside of China to countries like India and Vietnam and is actively telling suppliers to “plan more actively” for assembling iPhones in other countries.

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Hohem tech is a global technology company that specializes in designing, manufacturing, and selling gimbals and stabilizers for smartphones, DSLRs, mirrorless cameras, action cameras, etc. 

The company which was established in 2014, engages in R&D, design, manufacture, production, and distribution of hand-held PTZ stabilizers. The company offers advanced tech solutions and accessories for content creators and movie makers. Some of their achievements include making the first gimbal with crowdfunding of over one million dollars on Indiegogo, the world’s lightest 3-axis smartphone gimbal, the world’s first built-in AI vision sensor smartphone gimbal, etc.

Known for its quality products, affordable pricing, fast delivery, and great after-sale services, Hohem technology exports its products to more than 50 countries across the globe. 

Halloween Day Deal

Hohem Tech is giving discounts of up to $50 on various products under the Halloween Day Sale. Moreover, you can get an additional 10% discount on almost all of its products by using the code: HALLO. With a varied product line that includes Gimbals, Stabilizers, Smartphone heads, Action Camera heads, professional SLR heads, etc, you are sure to find something that suits your creative needs. Some of their most interesting products include the iSteady V2 3-Axis Gimbal, iSteady Mobile+, iSteady Pro 4, etc.

You can check out other interesting deals and discounts given by Hohem under its Halloween Day Sale here. Please note that this deal ends on November 1, 2022. 

For more information on such exciting deals and offers check out our deals hub.

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EVGA, one of the largest manufacturers of graphics card add-in boards, has announced that the company will stop making NVIDIA video cards based on NVIDIA’s next-generation of GPUs and won’t be immediately switching to AMD or Intel.

As a result, NVIDIA is losing its largest add-in board (AIB) in North America, and the broader North American video card market is losing one of its biggest and best-known vendors in this segment.

The development comes at a time when the financial outlook is bleak in the sector post-Ethereum Merge and “mistreatment” from its partner NVIDIA. The company spokesperson said in a statement, “EVGA will not carry the next-generation graphics cards. It will continue to support the existing current-generation products. EVGA will continue to provide the current-generation products and is committed to our customers and will continue to offer sales and support on the current lineup.”

For those who are unaware, while NVIDIA and AMD design the GPU that sits on the board, the actual card itself that slots into a computer are built by third parties such as EVGA, ASUS, MSI, and Gigabyte. This is done to separate the low-margin business from the high-margin business of designing the actual chips.

EVGA notes that the AIB margins have been slowly shrinking over the past couple of decades, which reportedly have fallen from 25% in 2000 to 10% in 2015, and finally an estimated 5% this year. Meanwhile, as NVIDIA has slowly ramped up its own efforts to directly sell its Founders Edition (reference) video cards, AIBs like EVGA have been put in a position of directly competing with their partner-turned-supplier.

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Samsung, the world’s leading smartphone manufacturer, has reportedly cut down production of its devices at the massive plant in Vietnam due to the global fall in consumer spending

The report, coming from Reuters, cites employees as the source. The scale back of production comes as the retailers and warehouses deal with a rising inventory.

As per the report, America’s largest warehouse market is full and the major retailers in the United States have warned of slowing sales given that shoppers are not spending as much as they used to before and during the early era of the pandemic.

One of the workers at the plant told Reuters, “We are going to work just three days per week, some lines are adjusting to a four-day workweek instead of six before, and of course, no overtime is needed.”

The manufacturing plant in Vietnam’s northern province of Thai Nguyen has been the most affected. It is one of the two mobile manufacturing bases in the country where Samsung produces half of its smartphones.

While Samsung says that it has not discussed reducing its annual production target in Vietnam, the South Korean giant is optimistic about smartphone demand in the second half of the year as it said during its earnings call last week that supply disruptions had mostly been resolved and that demand would either stay flat or see single-digit growth.

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Qualcomm gave the contract to manufacture the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chips to Samsung Foundry but an order for the upgraded version of the processor, dubbed Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 was given to TSMC.

Now, a new report coming from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that Qualcomm is giving a contract to TSMC for exclusively manufacturing the next-generation Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip as well as the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2 chips.

This is a major blow to Samsung Foundry which had Qualcomm as its most important customer for the advanced chips. With Qualcomm moving to TSMC, the Taiwan-based company will significantly increase its market lead.

While details about the next-generation flagship smartphone processor remain unknown, it likely that the company will stick to the 4nm node process for the upcoming chips, which is the same used in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 series.

Samsung’s issues with the yield is likely one of the major reason Qualcomm decided to switch to TSMC. As per the reports, the yield of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 manufactured by Samsung Foundry is 35%. This means that out of the 100 pieces that are made, only 35 are useful and 65 are defective.

The South Korean giant recently started production of 3nm chips. It uses the Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistor architecture for power-efficient and performance-enhanced chips.  It is also developing a second-generation 3nm process node that would offer significant improvements across several areas.

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Foxconn Group, which is known for being Apple’s contract manufacturer, has been expanding its business and had recently announced that it entering the rapidly growing market of electric vehicles.

Now, the company’s chairman Liu Yangwei has said that the revenue in the electric vehicles market is still dominated by software and parts and the revenue for the vehicle itself will not be noteworthy until at least a year.

He further added that the company’s goal is to capture around 5 percent of the market share globally in the electric vehicles market by the end of the year 2025. By that time, the company also hopes to reach vehicle OEM capacity of producing 500,000 to 750,000 electric vehicles per year.

Liu Yangwei also talked about the competition and added that the company has four major advantages over others — Localization of Operations, Software & Hardware Design, Vertical Integration, and MIH Open System.

Last month, the company announced a joint venture with the National Petroleum Corporation of Thailand (PTT) for the electric vehicles factory in the country, which will start mass production in the first quarter of 2024.

Foxconn isn’t limiting the electric vehicles production business to Thailand but it is spreading it across regions. The company has also announced that it is partnering with the Indonesian Investment Ministry along with some other firms for the development of electric vehicles in the region.

It has signed an agreement to acquire an EV manufacturing plant in North America. It is a part of $280 million in deals with U.S. electric vehicle startup Lordstown Motors that also include a share purchase. It is also considering setting up electric vehicle plants in India, Europe, and either North or South America by the year 2024.

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Foxconn, the contract manufacturer of Apple’s iPhone models, has been forced to shut down its production facility in Shenzhen as the government has ordered lockdown because of new cases of COVID-19.

Because of this new lockdown and shutdown of the factory, there could be some delay in shipments of some Apple devices for which Foxconn is responsible for production, which also includes some iPhone models.

The whole city of Shenzhen in China has been placed under lockdown for one week and everything is closed for the 17.5 million residents of the city, including bus and subway system of transportation.

Everything that is not considered essential has been shut down for a week, including the Foxconn factory. The company said that its Shenzhen operations would be suspended until further notice and added that it will now depend on backup plans to prevent disruptions.

Multiple Chinese provinces and cities have tightened restrictions, a move which is in line with Beijing’s zero-tolerance goal of suppressing contagion as quickly as possible.

If the new COVID-19 cases keep rising in China, then the lockdown period could be increased, disrupting production and supply chains, leading to a shortage of chips and components needed to make devices. Some reports indicate that the total number of COVID cases in China this year has already topped the numbers seen throughout 2021.

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Foxconn Group, the company known for being a contract manufacturer for Apple, is rapidly trying to increase its footprints and has already announced its plans for entering the rapidly growing electric vehicles market.

The National Petroleum Corporation of Thailand (PTT) has announced that its electric vehicles factory in the country, which is a joint venture with the Foxconn Group, will start mass production in the first quarter of 2024.

If the reports are to be believed, then both these companies are planning to invest around $1 billion in setting up this new factory in Thailand. The National Petroleum Corporation of Thailand estimates annual production of about 50,000 vehicles initially which will later be expanded to a capacity of about 150,000 vehicles.

It’s noteworthy that Foxconn isn’t limiting the electric vehicles production business to Thailand but it is spreading it across regions. Just a few days ago, the company announced that it is partnering with the Indonesian Investment Ministry along with other firms for the development of electric vehicles in the region.

Prior to that, the Taiwanese company had also signed an agreement to acquire its first electric vehicle manufacturing plant in North America. It is a part of $280 million in deals with U.S. electric vehicle startup Lordstown Motors that also include a share purchase. It is also considering setting up electric vehicle plants in India, Europe, and either North or South America by the year 2024.

A few months ago, Foxconn unveiled three prototype EV models that the company aims to release in commercial quantities sometime this year. The three new prototypes are a culmination of Foxconn’s partnership with Taiwan’s Yulon Motors.

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Apple is among the very few companies that design their own chips and the Cupertino-based technology giant has been making A-series chips for devices like iPhones and iPads.

Last year, the company introduced the M1 chip under Apple Silicon, based on the ARM architecture for its Mac devices. This year, Apple introduced two more such chips — M1 Pro and M1 Max, further boosting the performance.

If the latest report coming from Bloomberg is to be believed, then Apple is planning to open a new office in Southern California with dozens of engineers that are yet to be hired by the company. The job post listing reveals that Apple is looking for people with experience in modem chips and other types of wireless semiconductors.

In the next stage, the company seems to be all set to start designing its own 5G modem chips for the iPhones. For this, Apple spent $1 billion in 2019 by acquiring Intel’s smartphone modem chip business.

The 5G modem chip from Apple is expected to be manufactured by the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) which is also manufacturing other chips from the technology giant. Based on the previous reports, Apple’s in-house 5G modem could be launched as soon as 2023.

It is speculated that once Apple starts making its own 5G modem chips, it will start designing its own Wi-Fi chips for which the company is currently dependent on Broadcom and Skyworks Solutions.

While Apple will be reducing its reliance on these vendors that offer chips to the company by making its own versions in-house, it will also be increasing its dependence on TSMC for manufacturing all these chips as Apple doesn’t have manufacturing capabilities. This could backfire because of the geopolitical tensions between China and Taiwan as well as China and the United States.

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With the Tesla Gigafacotry Berlin, the brand is setting up its first manufacturing facility in Europe and is also touted to be the company’s most advanced, sustainable and efficient facility so far. Now, it seems to be all set to start production of cars.

As per the new report from German media outlet Automobilwoche, the Berlin Gigafactory only requires the final operating permit from the environmental department and after that arrives, the company will be able to start manufacturing in the country.

The company is expected to start production in the Berlin Gigafactory next month, i.e. in December 2021, and by the end of the first half of 2022, it is expected to produce around 30,000 cars in this new factory.

It is being said that the company was set to start production of its cars in June this year but was postponed because Tesla didn’t receive the necessary EIA certificate in time. Now, the company is expected to get the required clearences within a few days.

If the reports are to be believed, then the Tesla Berlin Gigafactory has completed the production of around five Model Y cars but not on the production line. It is expected to start the production from January at a rate of around 1,000 cars per week and then will gradually increase the production rate.

Apart from this car production factory, the US-based electric car maker is also gearing up to build a large battery production plant at the same location in Glenheide near Berlin. But before that, the Tesla Gigafacotry for car production will operate at full capacity.

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Nowadays, 5nm manufacturing is the most advanced technology when it comes to making modern chips. Now, companies are working on the next generation of chipset manufacturing tech and the next major thing could be 3nm manufacturing.

A couple of years back, Samsung had unveiled the 3GAE (3nm Gate-All-Around Early) and 3GAP (3nm Gate-All-Around Plus) nodes, promising substantial reduction in power consumption and enhancements in overall performance.

Now, the South Korean giant has announced the postponement of the 3nm chip manufacturing technology until 2022. Not just that, the company has also postponed the 2nm chip until 2025.

Samsung chip foundry uses cutting-edge technologies to manufacture chipsets and includes the likes of Qualcomm, IBM, and Samsung itself as its clients. The company competes against TSMC, which also announced a few months back that will postpone the launch of its 3nm chipset.

At the time of its announcement in 2019, Samsung had claimed that the 3nm process could offer a 35 percent performance jump, in addition to a 50 percent reduction in power consumption when compared with the 7LPP nodes technique.

Postponement of the newer technology makes sense given that the chip manufacturers are under immense pressure to keep producing chips as there’s currently a global shortage of chips and the company wants to go with the established process with a high yield rate compared to the experimental process.

Samsung Foundry is the second-largest smartphone chip-maker after TSMC. It is an independent arm of Samsung and continues to provide critical supplies which is the reason behind the South Korean technology giant weathering the global chip shortage without significantly affecting the business.

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Apple launched the iPhone 13 series smartphones last month and the devices are much in demand, so much that the company has extended the shipment dates for the new orders from the end of September to the last week of October.

The iPhone 13 Pro lineup comes with upgraded specifications and the folks at TechInsights took apart the 256GB internal storage model to take a look inside, which has revealed some interesting information about the device.

The information shared by the phone teardown team reveals that the iPhone 13 Pro comes packed with 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM. This is a bit older as a newer variant for the memory — LPDDR5 is already available.

Also, it has been revealed that the GPU on the iPhone 13 and the iPhone 13 Pro seems to be the same, except for the core count. The standard model reportedly has a 4-core GPU while the Pro model comes with a 5-core GPU.

This is a similar approach that Apple is taking with its new M1-powered Mac devices where the low-cost models have 7-core GPU while the costlier models pack 8-core GPU.

The disassembly also revealed that iPhone 13 features a 1.7µm wide camera, which means it has larger pixels than the iPhone 12 which has 1.4µm pixels. On the other hand, the Pro model boasts a wide camera with 1.9µm pixels, up from its predecessor’s 1.4µm pixels.

The company uses its own chips, including the A15, the Audio Codec, and the Audio Amplifiers. Other components are coming from suppliers like Qualcomm, KIOXIA, NXP, STMicroelectronics, USI, Qorvo, and Broadcom.

The cost for the iPhone 13 Pro’s materials and components comes out to around $570, which is more than $548 that costed Apple to make iPhone 12 Pro. The increased pricing is due to the costlier chip, NAND memory, and display subsystem, as well as the increased cost of the main enclosure. Do note that the pricing isn’t inclusive of other associated costs, such as software, labor, shipping, etc.

Currently, the Apple iPhone 13 Pro 256GB storage model is available for purchase at a price of $1,099. This means that the Cupertino-based tech giant is selling it at 1.9x the phone’s build cost.

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The arrival of the popular electric vehicles manufacturer Tesla is being highly anticipated in the Indian market but the company has to pass a few challenges before that becomes a reality. The EV maker has been progressing in that direction and has days after its appeal, the Indian government is reportedly considering slashing import duty on EVs.

Now, a new report coming from Counterpoint Research hints at Tesla aiming to give a bigger role to India. It claims that Tesla could announce the production of its cars in India as early as next year.

Earlier this year, India’s Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari had said that the country is ready to offer incentives to ensure that Tesla’s cost of production would be less than in China if the carmaker commits to making its electric vehicles in India.

To attract EV makers, India is considering slashing its import duty. For electric vehicles with a valuation of less than $40,000, the tax rate can be slashed to 40 percent compared to 60 percent currently. For cars that are valued at over $40,000, the rate could be slashed from 100 percent to 60 percent.

It is believed that the Indian government is in favor of cutting import duties to see companies like Tesla providing benefits to the domestic economy by manufacturing locally later on, or give a firm timeline on when it would be able to.

India is currently the fifth largest car market with an annual sale of around 3 million cars but last year, EVs accounted for only 5,000 of them. This is because of the negligible charging infrastructure and the high cost of electric vehicles. Also, India doesn’t have a comprehensive EV policy like China, the world’s biggest auto market.

Tesla is expected to enter the Indian car market and gauge the demand by first importing vehicles instead of manufacturing them locally. Currently, the company has active production facilities in California, Nevada, New York, and Shanghai with three more factories to start operation pretty soon.

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Some of the contract manufacturers and suppliers of Apple in China have temporarily shut down production for a few days. This is because of the government initiating a crackdown as the country faces an energy crisis.

The move is a part of the Chinese government’s new regulations related to the use of energy in the country. However, the timing is crucial as tech giant Apple has just launched its latest iPhone 13 series smartphones and the backorders are rising as the shipment dates for the new Apple iPhone models keep getting pushed.

While not all the suppliers of Apple are affected, those factories which manufacture parts like motherboards and speakers have to shut down their manufacturing operations for a few days. Analysts claim that the reduction in production due to the power shortage is resulting in a drag on the country’s economic growth.

There’s a shortage of coal and the tougher standards related to emissions, combined with the strong demand from manufacturers have resulted in coal prices surging and it has now hit a record high which is forcing users to ration energy.

Eson Precision Engineering, an affiliate of Foxconn and a key supplier for Apple and Tesla,  has suspended its production for a week. On the other hand, Unimicron Technology has stopped production in two cities until the end of the month.

As of now, there’s no information about whether any of these shutdowns will directly impact Apple’s manufacturing plans. Along with the iPhone 13 series, the US-based technology giant has also launched a new iPad, iPad Mini, and Apple Watch Series 7.

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Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi, has just recently paid a visit to the headquarters of FAW Group in China. The visit from the CEO was apparently for talks related to a new car manufacturing partnership deal for the former’s first car.

According to a Pandaily report (Source), the senior executive of the Chinese tech giant visited the HQ of the known automobile maker in China’s Jilin Province. During his visit to Jilin, Lei Jun event met with the province’s top government officials as well, which includes Jing Junhai, secretary of the Jilin Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China. The reason for this visit, as Lei Jun said, was to strengthen the cooperation with Jilin automotive enterprises and to better solidify an automobile production foundation.

Secretary Jing stated that “Xiaomi has strong R&D and production capacity in the fields of consumer electronics and intelligent manufacturing. Jilin has a good industrial foundation, strong scientific research strength and sufficient talent reserve. Therefore, the cooperation between the two sides in the fields of automobile manufacturing has broad prospects. I hope Xiaomi can strengthen cooperation with FAW as well as Jilin’s auto industry chain.”

In the past, the founder of the company had even reportedly visited the Great Wall Motor’s Research and Development Center in China. Furthermore, the recent move is in line with its plans on setting up a supply chain and relation with various car brands before the production of its own car. Media reports have also stated that Xiaomi Auto aims on releasing a new car each year for the next three years after the first model is launched in 2024. The company also expects to sell 900,000 vehicles in the first three years after its initial release.

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General Motors and Ford Motors have confirmed that the companies are temporarily shutting down production or extending the shutdown at several plants in North America because of the ongoing chip shortage.

General Motors plant closures range from a week or two to several weeks for plans that are already shut down temporarily due to the parts disruption. Next week, the company plans to restart the production of midsize pickups after it was halted for about two weeks.

On the other hand, Ford has updated its timeline to include additional downtime at two of its plans in Illinois and Missouri through next week. It is also shutting down its Flat Rock Assembly plant in Michigan for a week, starting from Monday. With these new changes, the vehicles impacted include Explorer, Lincoln Aviator SUVs, Ford Mustang, and Transit Vans.

Semiconductor materials are key components used in the vehicle’s infotainment as well as power steering and braking system among others. Automakers are facing issues related to the supply of semiconductor components as several plans have been impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic while demand is on the rise.

Ford had previously said that the company expects chip shortage to lower its earnings by $1 billion to $2.5 billion in 2021. On the other hand, General Motors is expected to earn $10 billion to $11 billion this year. This forecast factors in the potential impact of the chip shortage, including a hit of $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion to its free cash flow.

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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s leading contract chipset manufacturer, was recently rumored to increase its pricing by 15 percent because of the on-going chip shortage.

However, the first quarter of the year is about the end and the company has not yet raised the pricing. But a new report coming from United News claims that TSMC could raise the price of its 12-inch wafers by $400.

This could result in a 25 percent price hike which will be an all-time high record. It’s noteworthy that the company has shifted to 5nm process nodes for the chipsets, making them more powerful and energy-efficient.

During the second half of next year, a Taiwan-based company is expected to start shipping 3nm chips. The next-generation process node is forecast to deliver 25%-30% more power and 10% to 15% more performance at the same power levels.

Because of the strong demand for the chips and low supply, TSMC has walked back the discounts that it offered to its customers. But the company is facing other situations that are beyond its control and adds to the company’s expenses.

A lack of rain has created a serious water shortage and the city where TSMC is based received only half the amount of rain in 2020 compared to the previous year. This has forced the company to arrange for water tankers at its facilities.

If TSMC decides to hike wafer prices by 25 percent and cancel the previously negotiated deals with the companies, the smartphone makers could end up shelling more money than they budgeted for and that cost can be passed to the customers.

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Apple, which started manufacturing iPhone SE in India through its partners, has now expanded it to produce iPhone XR and iPhone 11. Now, the company is reportedly planning to start making iPhone 12 in India.

In an effort to reduce its dependence on China, Apple has been expanding its production facilities across several regions and one of such market is India. A new report from Business Standard claims that Apple will soon start producing iPhone 12 in India.

As per the report, the Cupertino-based giant is planning to initially shift about 7 percent to 10 percent of the iPhone 12 production to India from China. The company is also considering to move the manufacturing on iPhone 12 Mini to India but Apple has not yet made a final decision.

The iPhone 12 models manufactured in India will be available for purchase in the domestic market and will also be exported. With local manufacturing, the company will be able to avoid paying heft import tariffs. However, it remains to be seen if Apple decides to pass on the benefits to the customers, which it hasn’t done in the past.

But passing on the benefits to the customers could mean a bit lower starting price for the iPhone 12 in India, giving it a boost in the market. Apple has been trying to expand its footprints in India and this could be a gateway to have a significant market share.

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Since the past couple of years, chipset makers have been making their flagship chips based on the 5nm process. However, manufacturers have been working on a more advanced process, using 3nm and 2nm nodes.

Now, it appears that TSMC, the world’s largest contract manufacturer of chips, will start mass production of 3nm chipsets from next year. As per the report, the company will start production in the second half of 2022 with a capacity to process 30,000 wafers.

It further adds that because of the order commitment from Apple, TSMC will expand the monthly production capacity of its 3nm process to 55,000 units in 2022 and within a year after that, it plans to expand the production to 105,000 units a month.

Compared to the current 5nm process, the new 3nm process reduces power consumption by 30 percent and increases performance by 15 percent. Even with orders for 3nm chips, the company will continue to focus on 5nm chips as well.

In this year, TSMC will be expanding its production capacity for the 5nm chips to meet the increasing demand. Currently, it has a capacity of manufacturing 90,000 units a month but in the first half of this year, it will be increased to 105,000 units. By the end of this year, it plans to further expand the manufacturing capacity to 120,000 units.

By the year 2024, the production capacity of TSMC’s 5nm chips is expected to reach 160,000 units. Apart from Apple, the company’s major clients for the 5nm process include AMD, MediaTek, Marvell, Broadcom, and Qualcomm among others.

However, TSMC has allocated most of its resources for Apple as the company is gearing up to launch its iPhone 13 series which will be powered by the A15 chipset, manufactured using the 5nm+ or N5P process. It is basically a performance enhanced process of 5nm node which also brings power efficiency.

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A few days ago, we reported that Apple was in talks with the Indian government to start production of iPads in the country. It was reported that the tech giant is looking to reach a better deal for incentives from the government.

Now, the Indian government has approved a proposal to offer a billion dollars’ worth of incentives. The production-linked incentive (PLI) plan is aimed at manufacturing tablets and computing equipment.

Apple was interested in using this incentives plan to begin iPad assembly in the Indian market. This $1.02 billion incentives plan aims to boost local manufacturing and exports of IT products such as laptops, tablets, personal computers and servers. It offers manufacturers cash-backs of between 1% and 4% of additional sales of locally made goods over four years, with 2019-2020 as the base year.

The incentives should help Apple set up its assemble operations for iPads in India through one of its manufacturing partners but it is not yet year if that will be enough. It is likely that Apple continues negotiating with the Indian government for a better deal.

Apple has been trying to diversify its manufacturing which is currently heavily dependent on China. The Cupertino-based giant first started making iPhones in India back in 2016 and has since increased production capacity in India, and is now also manufacturing iPhone 11.

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A semiconductor industry group named Semiconductor Industry Association (SEMI) has urged the United States Department of Commerce to reaccess export restrictions imposed last year aimed at China.

It argues that the restrictive policies were implemented without public participation and adds that it will harm the American companies in the long-term as they will be left behind in global competitiveness.

Ajit Manocha, CEO of SEMI, has asked the Department of Commerce to prioritize reviewing rules that block companies from supplying chipsets made using American technology to Huawei. He has also requested them to quickly process a backlog of requests for trade licenses and adds that the procedure acts as a “de facto denial.”

He has also blasted former President Donald Trump’s administrator for using a “highly unusual process” for implementing “board, ambiguous unilateral controls on semiconductor-related items.” It is asking for a multinational approach for trade policies to ensure a “level playing field.”

In the letter, he also reiterated what many others have said previously — the restrictions imposed by the government harms the American companies and could “stifle innovation in the United States” and it forces them to reduce R&D budgets and shifting production and research activity overseas.

Several major companies are listed as members of SEMI, including Broadcom, Intel, Micron Technology, NXP Semiconductors, and Samsung Electronics.

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Intel has been struggling for some time despite being the leader in the computer chipset market and blaming that on the CEO, the company announced the appointment of current VMWare CEO Pat Gelsinger who will take control next month.

Now, another major development related to the company has surfaced online. As per the report from Taiwanese media, Intel has given an outsourcing contract to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) for manufacturing 3nm chips.

The report claims that Intel’s upcoming chips designed with a 3nm process will go into mass production in the second half of 2022. With this, Intel will become the second-largest customer for TSMC’s 3nm process after Apple.

Earlier, it was reported that Intel has been in talks with TSMC and Samsung as the company is exploring the possibility of outsourcing some of its high-end chipset manufacturing. While the report claims that it has reached an agreement with TSMC, the talks with Samsung are said to be in the preliminary stage.

Intel has been a giant player in the semiconductor market that is worth over $4 trillion. The American company is valued at around $230 billion but seems to have losing its grip over the market and competitors have taken the approach of designing chips and outsourcing productions to third-party manufacturers.

The company is also facing stiff competition from the likes of AMD and NVIDIA. While AMD has acquired Xiling for $35 billion, NVIDIA recently announced the acquisition of ARM for $40 billion, putting Intel’s current position in the market at risk.

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Samsung is one of the leading image sensor makers for smartphones, giving tough competition to Sony. The South Korean giant is the world’s second-largest company when it comes to supplying CMOS Image Sensors.

However, because of a serious shortage of image sensors in the market, Samsung has reportedly increased pricing by around 40 percent. And Samsung isn’t the only one to do so as other image sensor providers have also increased the pricing by around 20 percent.

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The report also adds that Samsung has significantly increased UMC’s 28nm ISP foundry orders to meet the demand. However, the company’s production capacity is in short supply at the foundry.

It is being said that the company is planning to invest in machine equipment and hand it over to United Microelectronics Corporation (aka UMC) for production to ensure higher capacity. The report further adds that the deal between these two companies is currently in the discussion phase.

Recently, it was also reported that Samsung is planning to cut down some of the DRAM production capacity as it wants to ensure that CMOS Image Sensor chips are available in the required quantity for the customers.

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Some companies have been trying to expand their production capacity and diversity it. In line with that, China-based OPPO and South Koren giant Samsung will start manufacturing smartphones in Turkey.

OPPO entered the Turkish market sometime back and now the company is all set to start production in two facilities, one in Istanbul and another in Northwestern Kocaeli province. It is expected to start operations next month.

It’s noteworthy that the company will be carrying out the entire production process in these two locations and not just the assembly work. As per the report, the necessary procedures have been completed and the company has invested $50 million to start with.

With devices getting manufactured in Turkey, the company will be exporting some of its smartphone models to other regions. The European market seems to be the main focus for this as the company already has a few facilities in Asia.

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On the other hand, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics also plans to start production in Turkey but unlike OPPO, the company won’t set up its own facilities but has hired a sub-contractor in Istanbul.

Just like other major companies, Samsung is also trying to expand its production facilities in other countries as the company focuses on reducing its reliance on Chinese companies. It recently started building a new display factory in India. The company already owns and operates the world’s largest smartphone production plant in Inda.

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As the chip supplies for some electronic components in cars have been impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s overall auto production could be interrupted, said Volkswagen AG — the biggest foreign carmaker in China.

China, which is the world’s biggest auto market, relies heavily on imported chipsets for electronic parts such as control units and stability programs. In a statement to Reuters, Volkswagen said that it is monitoring the situation and has been coordinating with the headquarters and suppliers for countermeasures.

On the other hand, BYD Auto has also confirmed a shortage of some semiconductor-related products in the automotive industry but added that the company has not been affected as it was prepared for the same in advance.

Apart from that, Xiaopeng Motors has also stated that it remains unaffected by the chipset shortage and the production and operation are going on normally. The report coming from China indicates that FAW Volkswagen and SAIC Volkswagen are the companies that had to halt production as they faced difficulties in sourcing chips.

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Interestingly, BYD Auto also stated that the company has a complete industrial chain in terms of batteries for electric vehicles, chipsets, and more to become self-sufficient. However, it added that there’s still a balance of external supply.

China has been increasing its efforts to boost domestic chipset manufacturing because of the recent sanctions on Huawei by the United States. In line with that, there’s a chipset factory being set up in Wuhan for about $20 billion while Huawei has also completed the construction of its first chip manufacturing facility in China.

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As China is gearing up to become self-reliant in the chipset manufacturing sector and reduce its reliance on other countries, Chinese giant Huawei Technologies has reached a milestone in that direction.

A report reveals that Huawei’s first domestic chip manufacturing factory, called Wuhan Huawei Optical Factory Project (Phase II), has officially completed construction. The project is said to be spread across 208,900 sq. mt. and is located in Wuhan Optics Vallery Center.

This is also Huawei’s largest Research & Development base in China’s central region. It includes FAB Production Plant, CUB Power Station, PMD Software Factory, and some other supporting facilities. It will also sever as the company’s internal optical capability center, smart terminal R&D center, and some other cutting-edge technologies.

Once the project is completed, it will start the production work as Huawei’s first chip manufacturing factory in China. This will enable the Chinese giant to have a complete semiconductor industrial chain — from chip design to manufacturing, to testing and packaging, which is a rare feat.

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But it seems that this won’t be the only such facility from Huawei. As per another report, the company is planning to have another chipset factory in Shanghai and will be managed by a Shanghai-based R&D company on behalf of Huawei.

Although the chipset factory is being set up, it won’t be able to compete with the current leaders. Huawei will start making 45nm chips next year and will progress to 28nm chipsets by 2022. This is nowhere near 5nm chipsets being launched nowadays that powers the premium flagship smartphones.

The development comes after the United States government imposed sanctions on Huawei and barred the company from procuring chipset or any technology that is made in the US. With the supply of necessary components halted, Huawei decided to focus on becoming self-reliant to keep the business afloat.

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Ever since the US-China trade war escalated last year, Apple has been trying to reduce its dependence on China for manufacturing its products. As a result, iPhone contract manufacturers have now shifted significant production to other countries like India.

Now, as per the latest report, Foxconn is shifting the assembly of some iPad and MacBooks to Vietnam from China after getting requests to do so from Apple. It is believed that this is because Apple wants to reduce the impact of the US-China trade war.

The United States, under the presidency of Donald Trump, has targeted Chinese companies by imposing several trade restrictions and banning some of the companies by categorizing them as a national security risk, without providing any proofs for the claim.

As a result, Taiwanese manufacturers started moving some of the production away from China to other countries like India, Vietnam, and Mexico as they anticipated similar actions for their production lines.

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With the latest development, Foxconn is now building assembly lines for iPad and MacBook devices at its Vietnam plan located in northeastern Bac Giang province. It is expected to be ready in the first half of 2021.

It is not clear how much of the production will shift from China but persons aware of the matter have confirmed to Reuters that the move was requested by Apple as the company wants to diversify production. This would mark the first time that the production of iPad moving to Vietnam as all the iPad models are currently being manufactured in China.

Recently, Foxconn announced a $270 million investment for setting up a new subsidiary named FuKang Technology Co Ltd, which could be to support the Vietnam expansion. It is also being reported that the Vietnam facility will also make TVs for Sony.

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Lava Mobiles, which is India’s one of the few homegrown mobile phone companies, is reportedly manufacturing devices for other brands. As per the new report, the company is now making Nokia and Moto branded devices in the Indian market.

HMD Global’s Nokia and Lenovo‘s Motorola brands are selling their devices with “Made in India” inscribed on the phone’s back. To ensure that the devices are made in India and as a cost-effective and convenient method, they have opted to partner with Lava Mobiles to manufacture devices at its facilities in India.

It is also being reported that Lava Mobiles is in the advanced level of talks with one of the telecom companies in India for co-branded devices. Not just that, it is actually in talks with all three major network carriers in India for design and manufacturing partnerships, similar to what it is doing for Nokia.

Lava Mobiles was founded in 2009 and is among one of the few mobile companies with Indian roots. The company was once having a good market share but ever since the Chinese companies entered the Indian market, it has lost its hold in India’s smartphone market. Although, it is still selling its own smartphones and feature phones in India.

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Apart from that, the company has now become a contract manufacturer and expanding its footprints in that sector, it is making low-cost phones for companies like AT&T and General Electric, among others.

One of the reasons for Lava to expand its business in the contract manufacturing space is because the company has been approved under the Indian government’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme which offers incentives after meeting certain criteria.

Lava, which is the second-largest feature phone company in India, has ramped up its production capacity to 30-45 million feature phones. With its efforts to expand business in contract manufacturing, it is hoping to become one of the leading smartphone manufacturers in India.

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In order to boost domestic smartphone production, the Indian government has approved an incentive plan for 16 companies, which includes the likes of Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron, among others.

With this new incentive scheme worth $6.65 billion, India is hoping to become one of the export and manufacturing hubs for smartphones. This is a part of the country’s “Make in India” initiative that aims to promote domestic manufacturing.

The scheme offers a production-linked incentive involving cash worth 4 percent to 6 percent of additional sales of goods made locally over five years, and it is considering 2019-2020 as the base year.

As per the report, to be able to tap into the scheme, the companies need to make an investment. Interestingly, the Indian government has not disclosed what investment Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron have made.

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However, Reuters reports, citing two people aware of the development, that all three companies are planning to invest around $900 million in total over the course of the next five years to get benefits of the incentive scheme.

Apart from these three companies — Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron, which are contract manufacturers of Apple, South Korean giant Samsung has also got approval. Notably, Samsung operates the world’s biggest smartphone manufacturing plant in India.

It is also confirmed that five Indian companies, including Micromax and Lava, has received approval. According to the statement from India’s tech ministry, the approved companies are expected to produce smartphones and components of more than 10.5 trillion rupees, which is approximately $143.05 billion.

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In a major boost to the Indian government’s “Make in India” initiative, Apple has now started manufacturing iPhone 11 in India at the Foxconn plant which is located near Chennai in Tamil Nadu, reports The Economic Times.

Apple has already been manufacturing iPhones in India but there were not premium devices. That changed last year when Apple started assembling iPhone XR locally in India and now the current-generation iPhone 11 model has joined the list.

As per the report, Apple is ramping up production in phases and will soon start exporting the iPhone from India to other markets. This will likely lead to a price cut in the Indian market for the same model. Apple could reportedly save around 22 percent in import duties on locally assembled iPhone 11 in India.

The company started manufacturing smartphones in the Indian market with the first-generation iPhone SE, which is no longer on sale. It later started assembling iPhone 6S, iPhone 7, iPhone XR, and iPhone XS in India.

The report further adds that the company is also planning to start manufacturing the new iPhone SE 2020 as well as the iPhone 11 Pro smartphones in the Indian market at the Foxconn facility near Chennai.

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Apple seems to be drawn to the benefits of the Government’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. Also, smartphone companies are also planning to shift production outside of China to reduce dependence on a single country. Such a move is likely to help the manufacturing sector in India, along with countries like Vietnam.

The development of Apple manufacturing iPhone 11 in India comes just days after it was reported that the next-generation AirPods as well as 2021 AirPods Pro will be made in Vietnam. The company has already shifted the production of AirPods Pro to Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Apple is gearing up to launch four iPhone 12 models this year — iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Max, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max, having three different screen sizes. Reports indicate that while the announcement will take place in September, sales for some of the models could commence from October.

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Vivo has just inaugurated its new smart manufacturing plant in China earlier today (15th July 2020). The plant is located in Changan Town, China, and will be capable of producing 70 million units every year.

The center is located adjacent to Vivo’s global headquarters and has a total area of 216,000 square meters, a construction area of 345,000 square meters, and had Vivo invest about 2 billion yuan (roughly 285 million US Dollars). The site will focus on production with quality high quality development. When making the new manufacturing plant, the Chinese tech giant didn’t simply fix the shortcomings of its previous production line but rather rebuilt it from the ground up as a smart manufacturing plant.

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The new center is composed of individual buildings which include factory buildings, office, employee dormitories, and power centers as well. Vivo has achieved a high production capacity and efficiency with the new factory, being able to produce 6 million units every month. This translates to more than 70 million units within a year. Adding this with its four other smart manufacturing plants, Vivo now has a total production capacity of over 200 million units of various smart products.

Vivo’s new smart manufacturing plant plays a big part in the company’s efforts to be a completely “self-developed and self-produced” smartphone vendor. The company’s investment in research and development has been continuously increasing, with the new site also placing an emphasis on more efficiency, less wastage through recycling warehouses, and intelligent management of spaces and resources.

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(Via)

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Realme recently launched its first smart TV in the Indian market, dubbed as Realme Smart TV, with a starting price of ₹12,999 (~$171). Now, the company’s executive has confirmed that it will soon set up SMT lines for Realme Smart TVs in India.

The SMT or Surface-mount technology is a method in which the electronic circuit is produced by directly mounting the components on the surface of the PCBs. Madhav Sheth, CEO of Realme India said that the company is investing in a full production line — from basic components to panel assembling and SMT.

He further added that for Realme smartphones, the company started SMT assembling from day 1. As for the capacity, the company can manufacture 3.5 million smartphone devices per month and can increase that up to 40-45 million a year.

The Realme Smart TV comes in two models — 32-inch and 43-inch, offering HD Ready and Full HD screen resolution respectively. The devices are powered by a Mediatek chipset, 1GB RAM, 8GB storage, 24W quad-speaker setup, Chroma Boost Picture Engine, and Android TV 9 operating system with built-in popular content apps.

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Madhav Sheth also confirmed that the company will soon launch its flagship smart TV. While he has not revealed many details about it, the product is likely to be a 55-inch model of the Realme Smart TV which could have 4K screen resolution support.

As for growing the company’s business in India, Realme is expanding its distribution channels to even tier-IV and tier-V towns. The company believes that offline shops are the backbone of the country’s retail business.

It plans to cover more than 35,000 mobile stores across the country with more than 5,000 promoters, 400 distributors. The firm is also planning to make significant investments in training promoters, store branding, and mass media marketing.

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(Source)

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India is currently under extended lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country. Amid this, there are uncertainties about letting smartphone makers open factories to resume manufacturing process.

But there are some good news for Xiaomi. Muralikrishnan B, Chief Operating Officer, Xiaomi India has confirmed that Foxconn, the company’s contract manufacturer, has received approval to resume manufacturing at its Andhra Pradesh factory.

The company says that it is expecting its factories to operate at regular capacity by June in India. Xiaomi has already resumed smartphone sales in India through both offline and online channels and will cater to demand in green and orange zones.

For those who are unaware, Foxconn which is also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, along with another OEM Wistron, had to suspend operations at their manufacturing plants as per the government guidelines during the COVID-19 lockdown.

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The development is a major relief for Xiaomi given that almost all of its smartphones sold in India are manufactured locally. Muralikrishnan claims that nearly 99 percent of Xiaomi smartphones sold in India are made in the country.

While Foxconn’s facility at Sri City, Andhra Pradesh has received the approval, there’s no news about the company’s other facility in Sriperumbudur, Chennai. Foxconn’s Chennai unit is also manufacturing the iPhone XR smartphone.

Wistron and other ecosystem companies in Karnataka have also received approval from state authorities to resume production. However, companies such as Dixon, Samsung, OPPO and Lava with factories in the Noida Noida region and Tamil Nadu continue to be in limbo owing to lack of clarity on starting operations.

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The spreading of coronavirus in China has impacted several technology companies given the massive role of China in global manufacturing. The situation has affected numerous hardware firms in Silicon Valley and beyond and it could also compromise Apple’s production line, especially iPhone 9 (aka iPhone SE 2) and AirPods.

According to the new reports, the virus has spread to the Hubei Province (with over 100 confirmed cases), which neighbours the Henan Province and is near the Guangdong Province, both of which hosts major Apple production centres.

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This could impact the production of upcoming iPhone 9 and the AirPods, specifically, by the measures by Chinese authorities to contain the spreading of virus. The government has urged workers to stay home in cities affected by the coronavirus and has already quarantined the entire city of Wuhan from where the virus is believed to have originated.

It is not yet known if the production delay, if that happens, will impact the launch timeline of this upcoming smartphone. The U.S.-based tech giant is expected to start mass-production of the iPhone 9 in February and the phone is expected to go on sale from March. While we don’t see one production facility severely impacting the launch schedule, it could lead to fewer units available during the initial days.

A couple of days ago, Foxconn, which manufactures key products for Apple, said that it will not be adjusting any manufacturing timelines or closing its factories due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. The company added that it is monitoring the situation, but it’s not expecting it to affect any of its “manufacturing obligations.” On the other hand, Apple is yet to publicly comment on the coronavirus or how it might affect its operations in China.

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Pegatron, a Taiwanese company which is the world’s second largest contract manufacturer of electronics is reportedly planning to setup and run new factories in Indonesia and Vietnam by the end of this year.

With such as move, the company will essentially be shifting its production away from China as the production cost are rising because of higher labor costs as well as the on-going U.S.-China trade war. Further, the move is also aimed at diversifying production regions.

In an interview, Tung Tzu-hsien, Chairman of Pegatron said that China “has not been an optimum manufacturing location since more than five years.” He also added that when the U.S. President Donald Trump “threw a stone, diversification of production began like tumbling building blocks.”

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Sharing details about the company’s new plans in Indonesia and Vietnam, Tung said that these new plants will make devices for internet connectivity. The Indonesian plant will on Batam Island, about 20 km from Singapore, while the Vietnamese plant will be in the north of that country.

Further, the company plans to expand domestic production lines in response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s policy of promoting local manufacturing. Pegatron makes a wide range of devices, including Apple iPhones, under contract. It is second only to fellow Taiwanese company Hon Hai Precision Industry, better known as Foxconn.

While some of the leading smartphone makers have established their manufacturing facilities in India and are doubling down on that, Pegatron is not ready to do so. Commenting on this, Tung said that India “is an important option, but we haven’t obtained consent from our customers.”

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Historically, Apple has primarily relied on Chinese manufacturers and their home facilities for the mass production of their iPhone lineups. However, in recent times the American company has been taking planned downsizing steps in the region whilst investing its production in other countries such as India and Vietnam. Now, Apple is starting to export from India after Foxconn started the production of the iPhone XR.

According to a report, Apple will see an export doubling its value to $3.2 billion this fiscal year. The Cupertino-based company is set to increase its manufacturing and financial commitment within the Indian subcontinent. Ravi Shankar Prasad, IT and Electronics Minister, met Foxconn officials that stated that the iPhone XR model is now being made in the Chennai (Tami Nadu) factory in South India. Initially, Apple had first invested in Indian production and manufacturing via Wistron. It is another Taiwanese maker similar to Foxconn but is based in Bangalore, Karnataka.

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Foxconn Group Chairman, Terry Gou, stated that the company is looking at the beginning of mass production of iPhones in India. This is in line with the Indian Government’s interests as the country wishes to be a preferred manufacturing destination for electronics based companies. India is known to levy import duties and tariffs on foreign imports. However, the country also helps incentivize foreign manufacturers to set up production within India. Notable examples include major brands such as Xiaomi, Samsung, Oppo, Vivo, and LG.

Local manufacturing also ensures that Apple can avoid the 20% duty that the Indian Government has mandated for imported devices. Thus, the American tech giant is hopeful of pricing its handset offerings more aggressively within the second-largest smartphone market in the world after China.

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(Via)

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