Apple in China adopts new supply chain ways

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If you want anecdotal evidence that China’s manufacturing industries are moving up the value chain, it is to be found here, as home-grown Chinese companies are finding increasing success in bidding for Apple sub-supplier contracts that would previously have gone to Taiwanese, South Korean or Japanese firms. It is transforming itself from a country of low-cost labour to one that has the outright technical capacity to engage in cutting-edge manufacturing.  Partly this is a result of Apple’s search to reduce its reliance on one or two core suppliers – namely Taiwan’s Foxconn – but it is also the produce of several years’ research and development by Chinese companies.