"Production of Google 'Pixel' phones shifting from China to Vietnam"

[Financial News] As the fallout from the US-China trade war continues to prompt global companies to reduce their dependence on manufacturing in China, Google is reportedly set to begin developing production processes for its new Google Pixel smartphone series in Vietnam this year.
According to Nikkei Asia on the 14th (local time), Google plans to carry out development and verification of production processes this year in Vietnam for its flagship smartphones: Google Pixel, Pixel Pro, and Pixel 10 Pro Fold.
Developing production processes is the stage in which manufacturing lines are implemented so that new products can be mass-produced as designed. It includes repeated improvement steps such as process verification and fine-tuning. Hundreds of engineers from the company and its partner firms are involved in this phase, which also requires large-scale investments such as mold fabrication and installation of inspection equipment.
Google has already been mass-producing Google Pixel phones in Vietnam and has built up the related supply chain there. Some process verification work is also being carried out locally, and sources said that in the future it may be possible to develop new models from the ground up in Vietnam. However, development of production processes for the budget Pixel A series is expected to remain in China for the time being.
As the administration of Donald Trump in the United States has stepped up pressure on global information technology (IT) companies over their production in China, firms such as Google and Apple Inc. have been moving to reduce the share of their manufacturing based in China. Apple is producing all models of the iPhone 17 series in India from the launch date, in parallel with other locations.
However, even while pursuing supply chain diversification, these companies have until now carried out the critical stage of new product production process development in China, where the necessary capabilities are well established. In light of this importance, Apple is reportedly considering a plan to conduct future production process development simultaneously in both China and India. Since developing processes at a single production site requires deploying 200 to 300 engineers to partner facilities, doing so in two locations would effectively mean doubling the resource investment.
Nikkei Asia assessed that if Google’s latest attempt proves successful, it could mark a significant achievement in global companies’ efforts to relocate production bases and supply chains outside China. However, it also pointed out that the Chinese government continues to impose restrictions on the transfer of production equipment and the redeployment of personnel, meaning that shifting smartphone production bases and supply chains to regions outside China remains a difficult challenge.
In practice, Apple’s suppliers have faced setbacks in their plans to expand production capacity in India due to China’s tighter inspections on equipment exports, and Google’s efforts to aggressively ramp up smartphone production capacity in Vietnam have reportedly been delayed for similar reasons.

#Google #Pixel #VietnamProduction #USChinaTradeWar #GlobalSupplyChain

km@fnnews.com Kim Kyung-min Reporter