PC Manufacturers Relocating Production To Europe

Years ago, the last major PC manufacturer left Europe as a manufacturing location. Due to the current conditions, however, some large contract manufacturers are considering starting again with the production of notebooks in Europe.

According to the Taiwanese industry service DigiTimes, several large contract manufacturers of notebook PCs are currently looking into starting local production in Europe soon. Companies such as Wistron and Quanta currently build the majority of the devices of many internationally known brands such as HP, Dell, Samsung, and Apple primarily in China and some other Southeast Asian countries.

Electricity bottlenecks, supply chain crises and tax rebates make Europe attractive

In the near future, however, there could be a production again in Europe. The background to this is the corresponding demands from major local customers and the incentives created by the governments of some countries for foreign investors who want to stimulate the local economy.

In addition, there is currently a shortage of electricity in China, which is why production at notebook manufacturers and their suppliers has to be interrupted again and again due to planned shutdowns of the energy supply. In addition, wages continue to rise in China too, so manufacturers are striving to diversify their production locations.

So far, notebook manufacturers such as Quanta, Compal, Wistron, Inventec, and Foxconn have been expanding primarily in Southeast Asia, but are also increasingly manufacturing in Taiwan itself, the USA, India, and Mexico. Manufacturing in Europe would not be really new for some manufacturers. Quanta is already building servers for the European market in this country, while Inventec is building servers in the Czech Republic, where Wistron also has a production and service location. It is not yet clear when Taiwanese PC manufacturers will actually start building notebooks in Europe.