Taiwan is the center of contract manufacturing of laptops, so given the increase in the US customs duty to 42%, products of island origin will be more expensive for American buyers. The largest suppliers of laptops have taken a break from shipping products to the US market for a couple of weeks to sort out the situation and make recalculations.
Image source: Lenovo
As reported by Taiwanese publication Commercial Times, HP Inc., Dell, Lenovo, Acer and Asus have taken a break from supplying notebooks to the American market, temporarily ceasing to purchase core products in Taiwan. Local partners of these companies have been informed that supplies to the US are being stopped for at least two weeks. Most likely, as soon as the work of American customs in the new conditions is rebuilt, notebook suppliers will resume importing products to the US, but they will also have to adjust the volumes, since in the event of an increase in prices, demand will inevitably decrease.
Laptop maker Framework has removed a number of models from its US product range because they are also primarily made in Taiwan. The company said it would only raise prices if it had exhausted all other options for importing the necessary laptop models to the US at a minimum cost. Razer, which sells gaming laptops in the US, has taken a similar approach. As you know, Nintendo has postponed pre-orders for the new Switch 2 console, which was supposed to be available for early bookings in the US today.
As Taiwanese sources note, keyboard manufacturers have also adopted a wait-and-see attitude. In the server segment, which differs from retail in terms of the specifics of the relationships between market participants, negotiations are currently underway on the impact of new customs duties in the United States. It is possible that participants in the supply chain will try to more or less fairly distribute the financial burden formed by new customs duties in the United States. At the same time, suppliers of passive components have not yet stopped shipping them to the American market, since this product category is directly imported to the United States in very limited quantities.