Malaysia may get a slice of Apple as it mulls China exit

Apple is reportedly distancing itself from over-dependence on China. (Reuters pic)

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia is among the countries being considered by iPhone maker Apple, as it studies a plan to move about 15-30% of its production capacity from China amid the continued Sino-US trade war, Nikkei Asian Review reports.

The financial daily, citing sources, said Apple had asked its major suppliers to assess the implications of such a move following its decision not to depend too heavily on manufacturing in China.

The report said other countries being considered are Indonesia, Mexico, India and Vietnam, with the latter also stated as “among the favourites for smartphones”.

One of Apple’s key assemblers in China, Foxconn, recently denied it was planning to exit China, but said it had enough capacity to meet Apple’s demand outside China for the US market.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that Apple has a backup plan if the US-China trade war gets out of hand.

It also quoted two Apple suppliers as questioning the Nikkei report that they were told to do cost estimates for exiting China, adding that Apple had resisted a proposed production shift to Southeast Asia.

Besides Foxconn, key Apple assemblers include Pegatron, Wistron, Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, Inventec, Luxshare-ICT and Goertek.

The companies make everything from Apple’s flagship product iPhone to the MacBook, iPad and AirPods. - FMT