Apple will manufacture its latest Mac Pro in China, unlike the previous Mac Pro models which were manufactured in USA as reported by The Wall Street Journal. This was the only major product that Apple manufactured in the US.
An overwhelming amount of Apple products are already manufactured in China including its most successful product iPhone. The trump administration had pressurized Tim Cook and Apple to manufacture more of its products in the U.S, however, Cook was least interested in doing it as the overall cost for manufacturing far exceeds in US as compared to China which ultimately makes the already expensive iPhone more expensive.
The Mac Pro, Apple’s most expensive product currently sells for $6,000, however it only accounts for a small percentage of Apple’s revenue. Shifting its production unit from USA to China may be more profitable for Apple considering the overall cost at the manufacturer’s end. It should be noted that back when the demand for Mac Pro was high, the training and custom tools required to make the Mac Pros slowed production rate and created bottlenecks which eventually costed Apple a lot. Interestingly, Apple had been planing to move its Mac Pro production to China from USA for a long time now as reported by BloomBerg back in 2016.
This, however directly contradicts with Trumps administration’s efforts to persuade Apple to transfer its production from China to United States. The trump administration has even applied a 25% China tariffs on the US tech industry as part of the ongoing trade war against China. Major tech companies including Apple, Microsoft and Intel objected these tariffs and argued that these taxes would have a negative effect on the profits of the company which would eventually effect the economy of the country.
The recent trade war between China and USA has put Apple in an awkward spot, as China is one of the biggest markets for Apple products, especially for the iPhones. With the trade ware specifically targeting high-tech products things seems to become more challenging for the tech-companies from USA and China.
