Google to move smartphone production from China to Vietnam

The U.S. tech giant plans to shift some of the production of the Pixel 3a to Vietnam before the end of this year, and eventually move the production of most of its hardware outside of China, including Pixel phones and its popular smart speaker, Google Home, according to Nikkei Asian Review.

The Vietnam production lines would be a key part of Google's drive for growth in the smartphone market, Nikkei said, adding it aims to ship 8-10 million smartphones this year, double last year’s number.

A number of tech giants are seeking to shift production from China to Vietnam to avoid U.S. tariffs.

Chinese company GoerTek, one of Apple's key manufacturers, will reportedly begin testing manufacturing processes for the newest generation of AirPods at its audio factory in northern Vietnam.

Japanese electronics company Sharp plans to shift its computer production from China to a plant in Vietnam, which is expected to start operations after October.

Samsung closed one of two phone factories in China last December to rely more on low-cost countries like Vietnam and India for production.