TIME TO STRATEGIZE: Pegatron said it might increase capacity in the Czech Republic, Mexico or at home, while Quanta said it could boost production in the US or Germany

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 18, 2018
By: Bloomberg

From iPhones to computers, the manufacturing powerhouses behind many of the world’s electronics are preparing to move chunks of production away from China and toward such far-flung locales as Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) — who became a billionaire making Apple Inc gizmos — started the ball rolling when he opened a US$10 billion display plant in the heart of the US, a move that now seems prescient.

As tensions between the world’s two largest economies escalate, a growing cohort of his Taiwanese peers have drawn up plans to shift production abroad or are devising contingencies for costly new facilities.

Taiwan’s largest corporations form a crucial link in the global tech supply chain, assembling devices from sprawling Chinese production bases that the likes of HP Inc and Dell then slap their labels on. In the past week, corporate leaders, including the chief executive officers of Pegatron Corp (和碩) and Inventec Corp (英業達), said on earnings calls that they have come up with ways to mitigate the effects of a trade war.    [FULL  STORY]