HP Inc loves China and wants to keep making and designing products there, but also loves the idea of diversifying its operations to other countries in case geopolitics becomes a problem.

That's the gist of a Thursday post by chief supply chain officer Ernest Nicolas, titled "Transforming and Optimizing Supply Chains."

The Register fancies HP Inc. decided to share its views on supply chains after Japanese outlet Nikkei earlier reported the consumer part of HP wants "to shift more than half of its personal computer production away from China … in an attempt to reduce geopolitical risks around China and Taiwan." The report also claims HP Inc. will establish a design hub in Singapore as a backup to its Taiwanese facilities.

Nicolas's post confirms that geopolitical risk is something HP Inc. is considering - as is proper for any multinational organization.

"At HP, we remain laser focused on meeting our customers' needs with flexibility and reliability, and it makes sense to remain nimble," he wrote, adding that recent additions of production sites in Thailand and Mexico, plus expanded production in India, "has allowed us to do just that."

The offshore efforts have also "allowed us to provide a better customer experience and significantly reduce the risk of future natural or geopolitical challenges."

But the PC maker still loves China.

"Our teams in China are, and will continue to be, one of our most important manufacturing, engineering and innovation hubs," he wrote. "The advanced infrastructure and manufacturing talent pipeline allows it to serve as our standard of production that our global network strives towards."

Nicolas also pitched HP Inc.'s network of production efforts as making it "geographically closer to our customers, staying ahead of the growing requests from customers worldwide to provide multi-site, multi-region and multi-source production."

In a 2023 post, Nicolas hailed HP Inc.'s China presence as the best example of the org's chain efforts and wrote "we continue to grow in China and with China."

This year's post contains no such commitment to China, and ends by stating "the next frontier is not only about enhancing efficiency or boosting sustainability on our own - it's remaining fluid and harnessing innovation across our global network to insulate our customers from whatever challenges may come our way." ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/08/09/hp_china_supply_chain/