The decision to assemble some of its latest iPhone 14 smartphones in India will not affect China's important position in the global consumer electronics chain, as the latter has ample advantages such as highly efficient supply chains, advanced manufacturing talent and a thriving handset ecosystem, experts said on Tuesday.
The comments came after Apple said in a statement on Monday that the US company is excited to be manufacturing the iPhone 14 in India. The news came less than three weeks after the iPhone 14 was unveiled.
READ MORE: Apple says it will produce iPhone 14 in India.
Bai said that such a combination of advantages is something that countries such as India and Vietnam don't enjoy.
Wei Jianguo, vice-chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said the entire process includes from raw material supplies and mold design to final assembly. The chain includes support from both digitalization and high-tech during this process. The cooperation of multiple links and systems gives the manufacturer a lot of advantages in the province of Shenzhen, Guangdong.
China has a high-level, sophisticated and flexible team of skilled workers. This talent pool includes not only migrant workers but also engineers, R&D staff and design personnel who have been engaged in the trade for a long time, have rich experience and can respond quickly to changes in the global market, Wei said.
Experts said that even if Apple expands production to India, it doesn't hurt China's manufacturing weight in the US tech giant's supply chains.
In its latest report last week, JPMorgan forecast that Apple is expected to move about 5 percent of iPhone 14 production from late 2022 to India, which is the world's second-biggest smartphone market after China.
It expects to produce 25 percent of Apple products, including Macs, iPads, Apple Watches and AirPods, outside China by 2025, from 5 percent currently.
The pace of foreign investment in China has not slowed, and manufacturing remains a key destination for foreign investment in the country, according to Yao Jun, deputy head of the planning department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Pedestrians walk past an Apple Store in the Huangpu district of Shanghai on June 1, 2022. HECTOR RETAMAL AFP Yao said that China's advanced manufacturing sector is of greater appeal to various sources of funding. From January to May this year the actual use of foreign capital in China's high-tech manufacturing sector increased by 32.9 percent year-on-year.
As China continues to move up the industrial chain, it is natural for multinational companies to readjust their local branches to focus on high-end manufacturing, according to experts.
At a recent forum, Deuk-Kyu Hwang, President of Samsung Greater China, said that Samsung China is fully integrated into the Chinese supply chain and has completely become a high-end equipment and supply chain-based enterprise.
With a complete supply chain support system, China is well-positioned to deal with global uncertainties, he said, adding that 60 percent of Samsung's upstream partners are based in China and its annual local procurement is about US $14 billion.
The company said it invested in China a total of $51.4 billion, with 43 percent of the investment coming from China in the past five years.