Insights into the New Manufacturing Locations

Selected business news articles on global production

Balancell Energy (Pty) Ltd is an innovative South African business that designs, engineers and manufactures smart lithium-ion batteries for multiple applications. This company, poised to take its ground-breaking battery technology to the world, took the top spot for manufacturing in the Financial Times and Statista list of Africa’s 125 Fastest Growing Companies for 2024. The company also made the top 20 overall, coming in at number 17.

Metalworking News | July 2024

As the United States slaps tariffs on Chinese electronic vehicles and the EU increases its own protective measures, the Latin American market remains relatively open to imports of Chinese cars and investment in local EV production and critical minerals. Efforts in Washington and Brussels to level the EV playing field will likely result in trade diversion to Latin America and other regions, encouraging a process already well underway.

East Asia Forum | 21 June 2024

COMAC’s C919 model, the first jet designed in China to compete with the offerings of Boeing and Airbus, has been safely used for thousands of flights by Chinese airlines since May 2023, when it first came into service with China Eastern Airlines. Yet geopolitical tensions and other complications appear set to keep the C919 from being globally embraced for the time being.

Nikkei Asia | 20 June 2024

Central and Eastern Europe has long been a manufacturing powerhouse. However, the region, once known for traditional, labour-intensive production, is now on the cusp of a major transformation driven by automation, supply chain reconfigurations, and a pressing need for new skills. Embracing this transformation is essential for the region’s economic growth.

Emerging Europe | 10 June 2024

Sri Lanka's automobile assembly is experiencing significant growth and development with the involvement of world-renowned brands including Hyundai, Proton, BAIC, DFSK, Wuling, Mahindra, TATA, Bajaj, TVS, JMC and Lanka Ashok Leyland, emphasizing the favourable environment for investment. With an increase in both component manufacturing and assembly, the industry is poised for a period of further expansion.

Daily FT | 10 May 2024

Global business leaders are increasingly looking to India and Southeast Asia as alternative supply chain destinations while trade relations between China and the U.S. deteriorate, a poll by PwC shows. According to the poll, Southeast Asia will benefit most from the rebalancing in the electronics manufacturing sector, while India stands to gain in the electronics manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals and medical equipment sectors.

Nikkei Asia | 9 May 2024

Apple is deepening its ties with China even as it further expands production in Southeast Asia and India, highlighting the balancing act between politics and business. According to a Nikkei Asia analysis, Apple increased its China-headquartered suppliers and Chinese manufacturing sites in 2023 while using fewer suppliers from Taiwan, the U.S., Japan and South Korea.

Nikkei Asia | 26 April 2024

Moroccan officials have set their sights on transforming the kingdom into a global aviation powerhouse, courting major manufacturers in a bid to capture a larger share of the multi-billion dollar aerospace market. With demand for new aircrafts soaring and companies like Boeing and Airbus scrambling to ramp up production, Morocco is positioning itself as an attractive destination for firms aiming to diversify their supply chains and tap into a skilled, cost-effective workforce.

Morocco World News | 25 April 2024

The ambition of BYD goes far beyond cars – and China’s borders. As the world tries to ditch fossil fuels, the company has positioned itself as a manufacturing powerhouse across a suite of green technologies. This ranges from its flagship lithium batteries, solar modules, electric-powered buses, trucks and trains to complex artificial intelligence and software used to control and connect transport and power systems.

FT.com | 25 April 2024

Central and Eastern Europe, long viewed as a peripheral player, has over the past two decades emerged as a pivotal hub in the global supply chain. Countries in the region are increasingly leveraging their geographic, economic, and talent advantages to become crucial nodes in a range of industries.

Emerging Europe | 2 April 2024

India’s lax regulatory oversight, analog practices where things should be digitized, and data integrity issues have far-reaching consequences and the potential to reshape geopolitical dynamics in the global drug trade. According to an Arthur D. Little executive, “If Indian drugmakers really want to cater to overseas markets, it is very important they adhere to global standards, however stringent.”

Nikkei Asia | 22 March 2024

Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has long been a manufacturing powerhouse. However, the region, once known for traditional, labour-intensive production, is now on the cusp of a major transformation driven by automation, supply chain reconfigurations, and a pressing need for new skills. Embracing this transformation is essential for the region’s economic growth.

Emerging Europe | 20 March 2024

As companies around the world look for a back-up to China to protect themselves from geopolitical disruptions – a strategy known as China plus one – Malaysia is becoming a surprise investment destination. It has a 50-year history in the “back end” of the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain: packaging, assembling and testing chips. But it has ambitions to move up to the front end of an industry that powers everything from televisions to smartphones and electric vehicles.

FT.com | 11 March 2024

A push for corporate resilience is expected to boost manufacturing in Latin America as well as investment from both northern neighbors and among countries within the region. While Mexico is expected to continue to be a focal point of the nearshoring trend, other economies further south – including Panama, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay, Colombia, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile – are projected to reap an extra USD 29bn annually in exports from nearshoring initiatives.

Global Finance Magazine | 4 March 2024

The WTO has fallen hostage to sharp divisions between the US and China as trade friction escalates between China and the west. As the world trade body falters, China is accelerating efforts to construct an alternative trade architecture that is insulated from US influence and centred upon the developing world.

FT.com | 26 February 2024

Chinese companies across the electric vehicle supply chain believe that lower costs and technological leadership would help them secure western deals despite geopolitical tensions and security concerns. Companies producing everything from EV chassis and autonomous driving software to the cobalt and nickel used in batteries are hoping to find overseas partners, despite US and European angst over the rise of China as a technological superpower.

FT.com | 18 February 2024

Malaysia has built a solid reputation over four decades as a reliable manufacturer of products ranging from semiconductors to automobiles — even producing a "national car" in 1985 through cooperation with Japan's Mitsubishi Motors. And while the country was the first in ASEAN to achieve that milestone, it has fallen behind in innovation and ranks as the region's third largest automotive industry after Indonesia and Thailand. Now it finds itself playing catch-up in the fast-changing world of electric vehicles, where technology, resource-rich countries, financing and big corporate names dominate the landscape.

Nikkei Asia | 24 January 2024

In September 2014, Narenda Modi, the Prime Minister of India, signed an ambitious “Make in India” programme, ostensibly to transform India into a global manufacturing hub. Now in its tenth year. none of the goals of the programme have materialised. The statistics paint a disquieting picture: the manufacturing secor in India has declined; the manufacturing growth rate has averaged around 5.9 per cent since 2014, lower than the benchmarked 12 – 14 per cent; and the share of manufacturing has remained stagnant at 16.4 per cent of GDP.

The Madras Courir | 22 January 2024

China has moved to set its own standards for semiconductors used in electric vehicles and self-driving cars as it seeks to replace imports of these vital components with domestic production. The government has called on industry to create technological standards for more than 30 important automotive semiconductors by 2025 and more than 70 types by 2030. According to an auto industry source, “the government will probably use the standard-setting process to instruct automakers to use domestically made semiconductors."

Nikkei Asia | 22 January 2024

In the fourth quarter of 2023, Chinese carmaker BYD, led by Wang Chuanfu, has claimed Tesla’s crown as the world’s biggest producer of battery-powered cars. “Four to five years ago”, according to Tu Le, founder of Sino Auto Insights, a Beijing consultancy, “no one would have thought that Chinese EVs would have the quality or reliability to compete.”

FT.com | 4 January 2024

Chinese lending is undergoing a deep, structural transition away from the property sector to support manufacturing. Across China, new factories producing electric vehicles, batteries, and other products integral for the green transition are springing up. However, with a saturated manufacturing sector and Chinese domestic consumption sitting near an all-time low, Beijing is now looking abroad to absorb this new production. These trade flows will exacerbate the tense trading relationship it has with economies like the United States and EU who are also fostering domestic industries and jobs producing many of those same products.

Atlantic Council | 11 December 2023

With the world’s fourth largest population, a flourishing middle class, a digitalising economy and five of the seven critical minerals for making electric batteries, Indonesia has long been considered a sleeping giant of great potential. For Indonesia’s economy, the global shift to producing electric vehicles has provided a strong tailwind. The country has abundant reserves of nickel — a key mineral for creating batteries — and is aiming to become a hub for the new energy supply chain.

FT.com | 8 December 2023

Apple wants batteries for its latest generation of iPhones to be made in India, as part of the US tech giant’s efforts to diversify its global supply chain and move manufacturing out of China. The company has informed component suppliers of its preference to source batteries for the forthcoming iPhone 16 from Indian factories. Battery manufacturers, such as Desay of China, have been encouraged to establish new factories in India, while Simplo Technology, a Taiwanese battery supplier for Apple, has been asked to scale up production in India for future orders.

FT.com | 6 December 2023

In 2020, Huawei was fighting for its survival as US sanctions had cut it off from global semiconductor supply chains. The sanctions prevented anyone without a permit from making the chips Huawei designed, and the company was struggling to procure new chips to launch more advanced handsets. In response, Huawei decided to bet its chip and mobile business on a tricky deal with the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, a state-backed foundry known for its ambition to catch up with the leading global chipmakers.

FT.com | 30 November 2023

Monterrey, a business-friendly city a few hours’ drive from Texas, is a bellwether for Mexico’s ability to reap the rewards of nearshoring — a shift that is taking place thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, trade tariffs between the US and China, and geopolitical instability since Russia invaded Ukraine.

FT.com | 27 November 2023

In the seismic shift in global manufacturing supply chains sparked by US-China trade tensions, Indonesia failed to grasp the opportunity. In 2019, the World Bank noted that of more than 30 Chinese companies that had announced plans in June to August of that year to expand overseas, none planned to do so in Indonesia. Foreign direct investment into Indonesia as a percentage of gross domestic product decreased between 2012 and 2019, compared with rises by its regional peers including Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.

FT.com | 21 November 2023

From Adidas to Nike, apparel and footwear makers have been shifting their supply chains out of China, pushed by geopolitical tensions and pulled by lower manufacturing costs. But amid mounting global economic uncertainties and weakening consumer demand, many are discovering that finding alternative production hubs comes with its own challenges. According to a senior manager of Bata Group, “That mature ecosystem, established over decades in China, not only ensures competitive price points, but also delivers stable quality at mass production that’s hard to copy.”

South China Morning Post | 31 October 2023

Malaysia became an early leader in Asian chipmaking by attracting many foreign chipmakers back in the 1970s. Nicknamed "the Silicon Valley of the East," it lost ground to the likes of South Korea and Taiwan thanks to the rise of homegrown players Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. in the 1990s. Now the country is hoping to make a comeback as the industry pushes to diversify production amid flaring U.S.-China tensions.

FT.com | 5 October 2023

In 2010, Morocco produced fewer than 60,000 cars. Last year, despite interruptions to the supply chain during the Covid pandemic, production reached a record 465,000. Eventually, the government aims to produce up to 1mn cars a year. But more important than the headline number of vehicles made in Morocco, most of which are sold in Europe, is the kingdom’s success in forcing the backward integration of its automotive supply chain. There are now more than 250 automotive suppliers, many of them subsidiaries of foreign companies, in the country, employing some 220,000 people.

FT.com | 5 October 2023

The expansion of India's manufacturing ecosystem has become an increasing strategic imperative for the government, particularly as it seeks to curb overreliance on Chinese imports and to attract multinationals diversifying their supply chains. The government views electronics manufacturing as an important route to achieving its economic goals and sees the sector as a high-potential contributor to growth in gross domestic product and exports.

Nikkei Asia | 25 September 2023

Huawei is emulating Apple in developing the processors that power its latest smartphone, a breakthrough that will help the Chinese company to reduce its reliance on foreign technology as it confronts US sanctions. Analysis of the main chip inside the Mate 60 Pro smartphone, which launched at the end of last month and immediately sold out, reveals that Huawei has joined the elite group of Big Tech companies capable of designing their own semiconductors.

FT.com | 20 September 2023

Following ongoing geopolitical shifts, material and talent shortages, and an expanding climate crisis, U.S. logistics managers are witnessing the Asian network of supply chains becoming more diverse. The greatest shift is happening in China, as companies are shifting production to other emerging markets in order to break through bottlenecks in the supply chain and mitigate other risks. This “China plus” strategy involves more than 40 countries in Asia, Middle East, and Latin America.

Logistics Management | 5 September 2023

The full-fledged entry of India and Thailand into the race for semiconductor-manufacturing investment has symbolized the flurry of activity to redraw the industrial map in Asia. India and Thailand are among a collection of governments that have become well attuned to the shifting stances of the chip companies.

Nikkei Asia | 15 August 2023

Multinationals’ desire for a “China plus one” strategy, following supply chain disruptions and geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing, is driving Foxconn into a renewed push into India, where it first invested 15 years ago but where it still only employs some 50,000 of its 1mn global workforce.

FT.com | 14 August 2023

China is responsible for the production of about 90 per cent of the world’s rare earth elements, at least 80 per cent of all the stages of making solar panels and 60 per cent of wind turbines and electric-car batteries. The rise and rise of China’s clean tech companies poses a massive competitive threat to western manufacturing industries, including legacy carmakers and energy giants. And in the context of a worsening technological cold war with the west, those capabilities could become a source of leverage for China.

FT.com | 9 August 2023

From slowing global demand to rising geopolitical tensions and a tentative post-Covid recovery, China’s manufacturers are facing some of the strongest headwinds in years. The tale of three factories — spanning footwear and electronics — illustrates how manufacturers are experiencing a slowdown in the world’s second-biggest economy.

FT.com | 1 August 2023

HP is working with suppliers to shift production of millions of consumer and commercial laptops to Thailand and Mexico this year, in the top US computer maker’s first substantial move to diversify its personal computer supply chain beyond China. Thailand already has a number of PC suppliers, which could facilitate HP’s shift, while production in Mexico would help the company better serve its primary North American market.

FT.com | 27 July 2023

The logistics group is building new warehouses across alternative manufacturing hubs such as Mexico, Malaysia and Vietnam as businesses try to diversify their sourcing. According to DHL’s head of supply chain business, storage facilities in these countries are filling up almost as soon as they opened. Businesses are not shutting down operations in China, but “instead of making the next investment of growth in China, it is done in alternative markets”.

FT.com | 12 July 2023

Speed is of the essence at VinFast, the upstart carmaker hoping to become Vietnam’s answer to Tesla. The company was founded just six years ago. Now VinFast says it is capable of producing a quarter of a million vehicles a year, while the company is trying to break into the US market and is heading for a New York stock market listing this month.

FT.com | 5 July 2023

The accelerating shift to countries such as Vietnam is part of a growing “China plus one” strategy to redraw global supply chains. As rivalries grow between China and the US over technology and security, more companies fear curbs on what and where they can manufacture. As a result, many are supplementing production in China, still the world’s biggest manufacturing hub, with expansion to other countries.

FT.com | 3 July 2023

The vast majority of the solar panels on which the world will spend more this year than on oil will come from just one nation. China manufactures 80 per cent of all the solar panels produced globally. And, China’s dominance is even more pronounced when one examines the entire supply chain. It produces 85 per cent of the global supply of solar cells, 88 per cent of solar-grade polysilicon, and 97 per cent of the silicon ingots and wafers that form the core of solar cells.

FT.com | 22 June 2023

With the current geopolitical challenges between China and the United States, as well as the ongoing supply chain issues affecting manufacturers and consumers, there has been much talk about moving global manufacturing out of China. But despite the talk, U.S.-China trade reached a record level in 2022, with no signs of any slowing in the near future.

The Conversation | 14 June 2023

According to Kearney, the management consulting firm, US efforts to reduce reliance on China, as well as price-sensitive American buyers, are driving trade towards lower-cost alternatives in Asia. "By the end of 2023, China’s portion of US imports” from low-cost Asian countries, excluding Japan and South Korea, “will have dropped below 50 per cent", said one of the report’s authors.

FT.com | 4 June 2023

Factories relocating to Vietnam must stop putting profit before the environment, Danish toymaker Lego says, as the supply-chain shift from China continues to funnel new business into the country. At the same time, Lego’s Vice Prsident calls on Vietnam "to be damn serious about the country’s environmental targets", adding that the company "will be monitoring" progress on meeting them.

Nikkei Asia | 2 June 2023

According to a recent World Economic Forum (WEF) report, the countries most likely to benefit from the global supply chain changes are India, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey, and Poland. This assertion is backed by the fact that many of these countries have managed to attract substantial foreign direct investment (FDI) in the last few years.

The Economic Times | 30 May 2023

Thailand is scrambling to defend its position as the "Detroit of Asia" as Indonesia closes the gap in auto production by leveraging its mining resources to capitalize on a global shift to EVs and other new energy vehicles. Looking just at passenger cars, Indonesia's production exceeded that of Thailand in 2014 and has recently doubled its rival's output.

Nikkei Asia | 28 May 2023

For most foreign auto groups, the good days in China are now over. The likes of VW, Ford and Toyota have been caught out in China by two fundamental transitions. First, the pace at which consumers will abandon the internal combustion engine. And second, the rise of China’s homegrown electric vehicle groups.

FT.com | 26 May 2023

Demands by labor unions and stricter standards for tariff relief are squeezing manufacturers from Japan and elsewhere that have set up shop in Mexico. The trend comes as supply chain risks caused by U.S.-China tensions accelerate a push for nearshoring, or a moving production closer to target markets. The recent headwinds could force companies that sought to take advantage of cheap Mexican labor to produce goods for the neighboring U.S. market to reassess their strategy.

Nikkei Asia | 24 May 2023

"Chinese entrepreneurs face intense competition at home and an uncertain business environment, so it makes sense many are looking at opportunities abroad", according to an investor at start-up accelerator Plug and Play. The growing success of China’s leading tech and industrial groups in global markets is also providing encouragement.

FT.com | 15 May 2023

Adidas wants to win back “the hearts and minds” of Chinese consumers with patriotic clothing lines to claw back share in its once-biggest growth market. Reviving the group’s fortunes in China is a top priority for new chief executive Björn Gulden, who joined the brand from Puma in January to turn round Nike’s biggest rival.

FT.com | 24 April 2023

According to global consulting firm Kearney, India has an "excellent window of opportunity" to become a global manufacturing hub in the long run. But the country missed the benefits of the manufacturers’ shift out of China in 2018 – 2019, while Vietnam made most of it. The Southeast Asian country followed the template of newly industrialised economies such as the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Thailand.

The Economic Times | 20 April 2023

The medical devices sector in India has the potential to deliver tremendous growth to the country’s economy. As per estimates by the Government of India, the sector is pegged to grow at 26% p.a. to reach a size of USD 50 bn by 2030. These are extremely bullish projections for an industry whose share in the global medical devices market is currently 1.5%.

The Economic Times (Healthworld) | 19 April 2023

Thailand and Indonesia have become two of the hottest Asian destinations for investment in parts and materials for electric vehicles, as Japanese, Chinese and South Korean players race to get in at the start of EV production in the region.

Nikkei Asia | 18 April 2023

Foreign companies have for years been shifting production away from China as relations between Washington and Beijing deteriorated. But now even Chinese players —- from major manufacturers to small businesses —- are finding reasons to set up shop in the U.S.

Nikkei Asia | 31 March 2023

India’s dream of becoming the new factory of the world will have to overcome longstanding hurdles. A formidable bureaucracy, lagging infrastructure and labyrinthine red tape have forced many foreign businesses to either shun India or shutter their local operations. A lack of skilled labor and innovation, poor production quality, and a reluctance to adopt rapidly evolving technology are also seen as hindrances.

CNBC | 12 March 2023

Vietnam has been pursuing a two-tier foreign policy focused on the continuation of one-party rule and strengthening of national defense. Under the policy, the Communist Party strives to maintain friendly ties with China while the government seeks to bolster security ties with the U.S. to counter China's naval expansion in the South China Sea. While some observers foresee little change in Vietnam’s foreign policy, others maintain that it is moving in a less pro-Western direction.

Nikkei Asia | 5 March 2023

The deepening decoupling between Beijing and Washington is forcing manufacturers of high-tech products to reconsider their reliance on China. The question for Dell, Samsung, Sony and their peers is: where to make stuff instead? No single country offers China’s vast manufacturing base. Yet taken together, a patchwork of economies across Asia presents a formidable alternative.

Yahoo Finance | 20 February 2023

Historic levels of private sector investment and sourcing commitments going into Central America have accelerated the two-way textile and apparel trade with the United States, reshaped global sourcing and simultaneously created more jobs and bolstered the region’s economies.

THE HILL | 18 February 2023

Apple is facing political, strategic and investor pressure to dramatically cut its manufacturing reliance on China. But if the relationship is untenable, it is also near-unbreakable. The operations that Apple orchestrates are so complex and massive that it is not at all clear the world’s biggest company has any viable options to overhaul the way it rolls out USD 316bn worth of iGadgets each year.

FT.com | 18 January 2023

China’s booming electric vehicle industry is forecast to further cement its global dominance this year, shrugging off US and European efforts to catch up and posing a threat to foreign groups reliant on the world’s biggest car market. The biggest winners are a clutch of fast-growing local companies that are outperforming foreign carmakers.

FT.com | 17 January 2023

US computer maker Dell aims to stop using chips made in China by 2024 and has told suppliers to significantly reduce the amount of other “made in China” components in its products as part of efforts to diversify its supply chain amid concerns over Washington-Beijing tensions.

FT.com | 12 January 2023

India is estimated to have the potential to capture 9% of the global space industry by 2030. Karnataka, at the vanguard of the country’s Aerospace & Defence sector, accounting for 65% of aerospace-related exports and 70% of its supplier base, stands to gain from increased government procurement.

The New Indian Express | 2 January 2023