Apple manufacturer to close Chinese plant due to falling iPad sales

Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Coretronic, which manufactures panels for Apple iPads, will close down one of its major plants in eastern China owing to falling sales of iPads across the world.

According to official newspaper China Daily Wednesday, the plant, located in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province has stopped operations and filed to liquidate its assets.

More than 1500 people worked at the plant, established in 2005, to produce liquid crystal display (LCD) back light modules for iPads, churning out 1 million units a month at its peak.

After manufacturing its last batch of products early October, the factory had no new orders, and is expected to complete liquidation by the end of this year; however, the company is yet to reveal if the workers at the plant will be laid off.

Coretronic is among the three major global manufacturers of LCD back light modules and optical devices, and has six other plants in China, including in Shanghai (east) and Guangzhou (southeast).

The closure coincides with the fall in demand for iPads across the world, which is in stark contrast to the $11.12 billion profit posted by Apple in the last quarter.

According to research firm International Data Corporation, between April and June, iPad sales dropped by 17.9 percent to about 10 million units, marking a sixth straight quarterly decline for Apple’s tablet business.

Competition from other mobile devices, especially smart phones, and higher renovation in the smart phone sector as compared to tablets, led to dwindling iPad sales, according to experts.