It is reported that one of Apple’s leading suppliers, Luxshare Precision Co. Ltd is in the process of acquiring an iPhone assembly plant in China. Nikkei Asian Review claims that Wistron has agreed to sell its iPhone assembly plants in the city of Kunshan to Luxshare Precision.
As per the publisher, Luxshare’s deal to buy two of Wistron Chinese subsidiaries is finalized for $471.5 million. Currently, both manufacturers are Apple’s leading suppliers, Luxshare Precision assembles AirPods, and Apple Watches and Wistron owns iPhone assembling units in China and India.
Therefore, this acquisition of iPhone assembly units will increase Luxshare Precision share in manufacturing Apple products which are bound to make the supplier a Foxconn competitor. As per the publisher, Luxshare had been planning to move into iPhone production for a while now and has successfully acquired the smartphone assembly plants after a failed deal of Catcher Technology acquisition in June.
Wistron- iPhone supplier
On Friday, Wistron officially announced that it sold two plants in a filing at the Taiwan Stock Exchange. However, the filing did not mention the type of the sold subsidiaries. Earlier this year Wistron bought a new assembly unit in India, which according to sources familiar with the matter claim is part of Apple’s plan to expand its manufacturing units base. Sources told Nikkei that:
“The decision [to sell the facility] is with Apple’s consent and it’s part of Apple’s plan. Later Luxshare will start to do iPhone assembly in China, while Wistron will focus on iPhone manufacturing in India.”
This acquisition comes after the United States imposed higher trade tariffs on China which is bound to offset Apple’s business supply chain. These trade tariffs resulted in Apple expanding its manufacturing plants’ circle in other places like New Mexico and even in the United States. As an alternative, India is another investment ground for suppliers like Foxconn. Therefore, it is a little odd that Luxshare is buying an assembly unit in China during growing political tensions between the two superpowers.
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