Apple's 2020 Supplier List Shake-Up: Four Packaging and Printing Players Face a New Landscape

Apple has released its 2020 Top 200 supplier list. A year-on-year comparison with the 2019 roster shows mainland China again as the biggest winner: 12 new additions and 4 removals, a net gain of 8 — the highest net increase among all countries and regions. Taiwan, China added 6 but also lost 6, while Hong Kong, China added 4 and lost 4, leaving both totals unchanged.

Within the packaging materials supply chain, the latest changes touched as many as four companies — a notably sharp reshuffle.

The packaging suppliers on this year's list mainly include:

Cymmetrik, Yuto Technology, Jinjian Printing, Intramedia Incorporated, Meiyingsen Group, Shanghai Industrial, Kaicheng Technology, RR Donnelley, Stora Enso, and Imperial Printing Ink.

Compared with previous lists, Taiwan's Cheng Loong and Japan's Seiko Ink were removed, while Shanghai Industrial and Imperial Ink made the cut.

Notably, Cheng Loong had worked with Apple for years, yet this time it followed Huacai out of the list, underscoring the aging of this Taiwanese packaging giant. Japan's Seiko Ink, which had only joined last year and was praised by Apple's CEO as the world's number one, was displaced by Japan's Imperial Ink.

This time, the Hong Kong-funded group under Shanghai Industrial,

Wing Fat Color Printing returned to the main list after one year away from Apple's supply chain, continuing to compete with Kaicheng, Stora Enso, Yuto and others for molded pulp packaging orders.

1. Taiwan Cymmetrik: Shenzhen, Kunshan, Kaifeng
2. Taiwan Intramedia Incorporated: Dongguan, Suzhou
3. Meiyingsen (MYS): Dongguan, Suzhou
4. Shanghai Industrial (Wing Fat Color Printing): Shanghai, Kunshan, Dongguan
5. US RR Donnelley: Shanghai, Chengdu, Kunshan, Dongguan, Prague, Czech Republic
6. Yuto Technology: Vietnam, India, Kunshan, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Xuchang, Vietnam
7. Stora Enso: Jiashan, Changzhou, Dongguan, Qian'an, Changzhou
8. Jinjian Printing: Kunshan, Chongqing
9. Kaicheng Technology:

In manufacturing circles, if you want to gauge whether a company has top-tier strength, one shortcut is to check its Apple supplier status: being on the list generally means it sits at the industry's highest level. Apple's vetting bar is high, and half-prepared suppliers cannot get through.

At the same time, joining the Apple chain often drives profits and share prices sharply higher, while being removed can bring losses and stock declines. That is a key reason many companies value Apple supplier status so highly.

Source: China Packaging Network (pack.cn); original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-377527.html