By Star Chang, posted Jan 31, 2013 at 9:53 AM, 480 views,

Apple will Open Supply Chain Management Center in Shanghai, not R&D Facilities

According to Chinese media report, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce has confirmed that Apple will open an R&D and procurement management facility in the city this summer. The facility will consist of three buildings in Pudong district that will cost Apple a total of US$8 million in rent each year. Several mainstream media have picked up the news, but Apple China’s marketing department has clarified that the Shanghai department is not research related, and CEO Tim Cook has not promised that any research and development centers will be built in China …

The Apple facility in Shanghai is a center for supply chain management. The three baroque style buildings that the Cupertino rented have began renovation, each has 6 stories covering an area of over 10,000 square meters. Source said the new facility is to strengthen the company management over its supply chain and has started to recruit high-level talent in the supply chain field in Shanghai. According to Apple, the company has 14 factories in China manufacturing Apple products, we believe the actual duty for the new management center is to prevent component’s leak from various Chinese factories. During the alleged meeting with Beijing Mayor early this month, Tim Cook also noted that Apple will move some servers to China dedicated to the App Store and iTunes to improve download times for Chinese users. Supply Chain Management Center will be on this summer, data center will be next.

SOURCE: Tencent Tech, cnet China (Chinese Translated)