The transfer of Apple production from China will slightly increase the price of smartphones

MOSCOW, Sep 2 — PRIME. Transferring the production of Apple smartphones from China to other countries will slightly increase their cost, Anton Guskov, director of public relations of the Association of Trade Companies and Producers of Electrical Household and Computer Equipment (RATEK), shared his opinion with RIA Novosti.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that U.S. companies Apple and Google have begun shifting their smartphone production from China to other countries in light of rising geopolitical tensions and supply chain disruptions due to the pandemic. A small portion of the iPhone 14 will be made in India, while some of Google’s Pixel smartphones will be made in Vietnam, according to the newspaper’s sources.

“The manufacturer is always looking for the best ratio of price, quality and production time. Therefore, I do not think that the transfer of production from China will greatly increase the cost,” Guskov said.

The expert also added that Apple mainly uses a contract production scheme – the company places orders with contract manufacturers, so “this is a normal story.”

“This time they just chose these contractors by the ratio of parameters. This is not so important, since they can produce their devices at those contract factories where the ratio of price, quality and production speed is optimal,” he explained.

Guskov noted that the transfer of production will not affect the logistics chains for parallel imports. “Wherever production is located, there is no direct impact on parallel imports. These are two unrelated things,” he specified.