[Epoch Times October 08, 2021]After Apple’s iPhone 13 series of smartphones went on sale, they encountered a “second miss” situation on all major platforms in China. On the one hand, Foxconn, which is responsible for assembling Apple mobile phones, is accelerating its recruitment in China, but on the other hand, according to China’s official media CCTV Finance, Apple has stopped cooperating with 34 Chinese suppliers. Is Apple going to accelerate the transfer of the industrial chain?
According to Lu media reports, in order to ensure the normal sale of the iPhone 13, Apple early entrusted the order to upstream and downstream factories in the supply chain. Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant, which is responsible for the assembly of the whole machine on the “fruit chain”, had to step up the recruitment of 200,000 workers to speed up mass production. Benefiting from Apple’s orders, Foxconn’s semi-annual report for 2021 shows that the company’s revenue in the first half of the year was 196 billion yuan, an annual increase of 10.97%; net profit was 6.727 billion yuan, an annual increase of 33.44%.
It is also a “fruit chain.” The Chinese touch panel manufacturer OFILM, which was included in the sanctions list by the United States last year, was removed from the supply chain by Apple in March this year, and its market value once evaporated by nearly RMB 40 billion. At that time, Cai Rongjun, the founder of the OFILM Group, also exclaimed, “We will not fall down because of the suspension of specific customers’ business, but we can get rid of the burden.”
OFILM’s financial report for the first half of 2021 showed that OFILM’s revenue in the first half of the year was cut in half, and its net profit was reduced to 34 million yuan, a plunge of over 90% year-on-year.
CCTV Finance reported that there are more than 2,000 Apple-related companies in China, but after Huawei was suppressed, it also made Apple understand the truth that it can’t put all eggs in one basket; Apple not only has to move to the Indian market, it has more than 34 Chinese supplier companies were kicked out of the Apple industry chain.
CCTV said that in order to get rid of dependence on Apple as soon as possible, technology companies should increase investment in independent research and development and master their own core technologies in order to go long-term.
China has not paid much attention to basic science for a long time, “hard foundation” Kungfu is difficult to overtake
Lin Xiumin, a part-time lecturer at the Department of Business Management of Soochow University in Taiwan, told the station that after Huawei was sanctioned, it was working hard to get rid of the US supply chain and figured out a way to replace their components with Chinese-made components. However, according to the latest research, Huawei still relies heavily on it. Stock chips in the United States.
Lin Xiumin: “Even Huawei can’t get rid of the dependence of the United States, let alone other companies. We take a closer look at China’s communications strength and competitiveness. It is still very low-priced, cheap, and low barriers to entry. So they are in Information and communications competition is still quite weak, and they cannot immediately get rid of their dependence on the United States.”
Lin Xiumin analyzed that China used to find a faster way to make money on the Internet, instead of working hard on basic science, semiconductors, and integrated circuit hardware. empty. Lin Xiumin quoted what Liang Mengsong, the co-CEO of SMIC, a leading Chinese wafer company, said, “There is no overtaking in a corner in semiconductors.”
Lin Xiumin: “It’s like studying mathematics. If you don’t know how to multiply by nine or nine, you can’t learn trigonometric functions. Advanced calculus will definitely use trigonometric functions. You can’t say that you want to go beyond calculus, but trigonometric functions, multiplication by nine or nine. Neither.”
Lin Xiumin said that China claims to develop “third-generation semiconductors” and tries to overtake corners. This is a big gamble. Many companies in the European Union and Japan are actively working on third-generation or other advanced materials. The so-called “self-reliance and self-reliance” is not one or two years, and it may not become a climate after decades of hard work.
China no longer has a demographic dividend, high production costs and electricity curtailment accelerates the exodus
When Chinese financial scholar He Jiangbing accepted this station’s interview, he believed that this round of acceleration of Apple’s transfer is related to power outages. This power outage will accelerate the transfer of the industrial chain. Large-scale and long-term power outages will affect Apple’s production. This is much more powerful than the industry rectification. A power outage affects the delivery schedule and accelerates the relocation of enterprises.
He Jiangbing: “If the power outage lasts for a long time, the industrial chain will not come back. Now China has high labor costs and high land prices. The cost of buying land for self-building is high, taxes are high, and electricity prices are high. The demographic dividend is gone, he If you move out, you won’t come back.”
He Jiangbing said that Apple may be interested in dual-line production before. The Chinese market is produced in China, and foreign shipments are produced in the Indian supply chain, but they cannot be produced in China after the electricity is gone. Coupled with the fact that Sino-U.S. relations will not get better in a short time, “Can’t afford to play, can’t afford to hide!”
Reposted from Radio Free Asia
Editor in charge: Liu Yi
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