Report: HP, Dell, Amazon and Microsoft Consider Moving Production Out of China

Major tech manufacturers including HP, Dell, Amazon, and Microsoft are all considering moving a portion of their production out of China as a result of the trade war between Washington and Beijing.

Nikkei Asian Review reports that a number of major tech firms including HP, Dell, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Sony, and Nintendo are all considering moving their production businesses out of China, motivated in part by the recent trade war between the U.S. and China. Sources told Nikkei that HP and Dell, the number one and number three personal computer manufacturers which account for 40 percent of the global market, may relocate up to 30 percent of their notebook production to countries outside of China.

Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Sony, and Nintendo are also reportedly considering moving their gaming console and smart speaker manufacturing out of the country. The sudden shift is reportedly due to tense trade relations between the U.S. and China combined with the rising price of production costs in China. It seems that the country could soon see a major shift in technology production.

Not all companies are considering moving away from China. Breitbart News previously reported that tech giant Apple is planning on moving production of its Mac computers to China from the United States.

The Chinese electronics import and export business has grown 136 times to $1.35 trillion in 2017 from just over $10 billion back in 1991, Chinese data provider QianZhan states. But this business could take a major hit as a number of electronic industries grow wary of the country. Data center companies such as  Quanta Computer, Foxconn Technology, and Inventec have all reportedly moved some production out of China to Taiwan, Mexico and the Czech Republic in order to avoid additional tariffs on their goods, as well as to assuage customer fears over data privacy in the country.

Darson Chiu, an economist specialized in trade at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, stated that the downside of companies moving production out of China for the U.S. could be that”products there could be more expensive.” He noted that for China, the country: “feel the rest as the country’s economy will have to brace for a further slowdown and many factory workers need to look for jobs elsewhere.”

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com