According to DigiTimes, sources within the laptop supply chain revealed that after a wave of production capacity shifts to Southeast Asia in recent years, many laptop manufacturers—both Taiwanese and American—are now moving production back to mainland China. The main reasons are that the impact of reciprocal U.S. tariffs and alternative tariff measures has been relatively mild, while production costs in Southeast Asia have remained persistently high, making them less competitive compared to mainland China.
HP, ASUS, and Acer have recently significantly scaled back their production capacity transfers to Southeast Asia, shifting their manufacturing focus back to mainland China. Domestic contract manufacturers have benefited from this trend, with Chongqing and Kunshan taking on much of the workload. This shift has affected Thai factories operated by Quanta and Inventec, as well as Vietnamese facilities run by Compal and Wistron, due to customers redirecting their orders.
Despite years of effort by PC manufacturers to establish supply chains in Southeast Asia, these initiatives have struggled to take shape. After reassessment, PC makers found that the cost of producing laptops in mainland China remains on average $9 lower than in Southeast Asia. While this difference may seem small, it adds up significantly when considering order volumes, especially for low-end products. The impact is even more pronounced given the current surge in storage costs.
In contrast, Lenovo, Dell, and Apple have made relatively minor adjustments to their production capacity planning. Lenovo never shifted large-scale production to Southeast Asia like other PC manufacturers, so there is no major relocation back. Dell has a high proportion of orders related to the U.S. government, making it unnecessary to move production back. Apple, meanwhile, is concerned that an overreliance on a single supply chain reduces its risk resilience.