Nintendo to shift part of Switch production from China to Vietnam this summer zomer

Nintendo plans to move some of its Switch production from China to Vietnam. The game company says it is doing this to “spread risk” and that it has nothing to do with avoiding tariffs that are part of the trade war between the US and China.

That’s what a Nintendo spokesperson told Reuters. According to the Japanese newspaper Nikkei, the Vietnamese branch of Foxconn is taking over from the Chinese branch. It is not clear where the console will be produced and how big this move will be, but it is clear that Nintendo expects to sell a total of 18 million consoles in 2019. In 2018, 40 percent of Switch consoles sold went to the US.

Earlier, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony jointly sent a letter to the US government asking to waive import tariffs on game consoles. In addition, companies such as Apple and Sharp are working on or considering relocating production from China.

President Trump is currently threatening 25 percent tariffs on game consoles. Now the import duty is still 10 percent. The trade war between the two countries has been raging for about a year. The Chinese Huawei has it even harder than the above companies: the tech giant is blacklisted for trade with American companies.