According to several news sources, the partial shutdown of key Apple manufacturer Catcher Technology due to environmental concerns could lead to supply constraints for the company’s MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lineups.
Financial Times reports:
If you’ve never heard of Catcher Technology, you’re probably more familiar with their work than you think. The unibody casing of Apple’s current MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lineups is perhaps the main reason Catcher is one of the world’s biggest makers of metal casings for computers. The company expects the shutdown to cut sales by a fifth in October and Catcher’s president Allen Horng had this to say at a press conference on Monday (via WSJ):
The analysts are already starting to weigh in, but it’s unclear how much of an impact this will have on current and future notebook supplies. We’re also not sure how this will affect those new refreshed MacBook Pros we told you about.
This isn’t the first time Apple’s partners have run into issues regarding environmental concerns. Today’s report follows accusations of “systemic pollution” in August from a Chinese environmental group over Apple signing deals with known polluters.
