Tags:
Journalism of Courage
iPhones may soon be made in US as Apple has asked Foxconn and Pegatron to look into this possibility, reports said. According to Nikkei Asian Review, key Apple assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry, also known as Foxconn Technology Group, has been studying the possibility of moving iPhone production to the US.
“Apple asked both Foxconn and Pegatron, the two iPhone assemblers, in June to look into making iPhones in the US Foxconn complied, while Pegatron declined to formulate such a plan due to cost concerns,” sources said.
But the sources have said that making of iPhones in the US will cost will more than double. The general perception among Americans that they are losing manufacturing jobs to other countries overlaps the Apple’s ‘rumoured’ prospect move.
President-elect Donald Trump referred to Apple multiple times during his campaign and vowed to slap a 45 per cent tariff on goods made in China. “We’re going to get Apple to build their damn computers and things in this country instead of in other countries,” Trump said at Liberty University in Virginia in January.
Apple’s Chief Executive Tim Cook was quoted by CBS’ 60 Minutes programme in December 2015 that America simply did not have enough skilled workers for the production of iPhones.
Read: Apple launches repair program for iPhone 6 Plus ‘touch disease’ issue
“To make iPhones, there will need to be a cluster of suppliers in the same place, which the US does not have at the moment. Even if Trump imposes a 45 per cent tariff, it is still possible that manufacturers will decide to continue production overseas as long as the costs together with the tariffs are lower than the amount they need to spend on building and running production lines in the US,” sources familiar with the iPhone production process were quoted by Nikkei Asian Review.
Sources said that to make iPhones, America will need US government to subsidise local companies for domestic productions.
