Bloomberg [excerpt]: #Apple Inc. supplier #Luxshare Precision Industry Co. is more than doubling its investment in #Vietnam’s northern Bac Giang province to a half-billion dollars as the AirPods maker and other gadget manufacturers further diversify #manufacturing away from #China. The company is increasing its Bac Giang investment by $330 million to a total of $504 million through its Vietnam unit Luxshare-ICT, the province’s industrial zones authority said on its website. Vietnam is among the winners as the Cupertino, California-based company’s network of producers increasingly crisscrosses the developing world amid growing tensions between the US and China. Vietnam has seen a fourfold increase in companies assembling Apple products over the past decade. The Bac Giang industrial zones authority granted the revised investment license to Luxshare-ICT on Nov. 6 and the new production facility is expected to be completed in 12 to 24 months, according to the website post. AirPods orders are dominated by Luxshare and fellow Chinese firm GoerTek Inc., which also has operations in north Vietnam. Luxshare’s new Bac Giang facility will make cables for smart devices, equipment digitizing voice signals, communications equipment, touch pens, walkie-talkies, smart positioning tags and smartwatches, the industrial authority said. The new 290,000-square-meter complex will employ tens of thousands of workers, according to the provincial government’s publication Bao Bac Giang. #news #geopolitics #business
