Pegatron Corp.'s plant in mainland China, which builds iPhones for Apple Inc., said in a statement on Friday that business is as usual. The Taiwanese company indicated that, in contrast to media reports, neither manufacturing nor exports have stopped.
After Hon Hai Precision Industry, commonly known as Foxconn Technology Group, Pegatron is Taiwan's second-largest contract electronics maker. Assets owned by Pegatron total more than $14 billion. The company offers a wide range of products, including TVs, wireless systems, game consoles, desktop PCs, and motherboards. Around 60% of sales in each category are made up of smartphones and other communication devices.
The business is a significant Apple assembler. Pegatron apparently received a modest percentage of the American tech giant's iPhone 4 orders, which helped the Taiwanese business win a much larger deal for the iPhone 5c in 2013. Pegatron has been expanding its production capacity to create room for future expansion. It intends to invest up to $300 million in 2015 to expand its facilities, one of which is in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
The information, communications, and consumer electronics industries are the focus of Pegatron Corp.'s research, development, design, production, and maintenance activities. Notebooks, desktop computers, motherboards, video graphics arrays, cable modems, set-top boxes, cellphones, game consoles, tablet computers, automotive electronics, and smart home gadgets are just a few of the company's products. The company's headquarters are in Taipei, Taiwan, and it was established on June 27, 2007.
But a day after Pegatron Corp.'s top executive met with U.S. customs officials, shipments to the Chinese facility where it manufactures iPhones were being held for inspection. On Friday, the Nikkei reported that Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, was in Taipei.
According to the article, which cited numerous sources with knowledge of the situation, the shipments to Pegatron's Suzhou facility were being examined on Thursday to see if they broke a restriction prohibiting containers bearing the phrases "Taiwan" or "Republic of China."
In response to statements made by the Group of Seven and the European Union criticizing the menacing Chinese military drills around Taiwan following U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, China recalled European ambassadors stationed there. Vice Minister Deng Li reportedly made "solemn representations" against what he called "wanton interference in China's domestic affairs," according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
According to state broadcaster CCTV, China activated over 100 aircraft, including fighter jets and bombers, and over ten warships on Thursday, deploying dozens of aircraft and firing live missiles close to Taiwan. The deployment was a part of a military exercise that lasted for two days and was to terminate on Sunday.
