Thursday, February 6th 2025

ASRock to Move Manufacturing Out of China Due to Trump's Tariffs
ASRock told PCMag it plans to move some of its production out of China. "We need time to shift the manufacturing of GPU cards and other products hit by the 10% tariff to different countries," they said. This week, the White House put a 10% tax on all Chinese imports to the US, this tax applies on top of any other taxes the US already had on certain Chinese goods. ASRock also said, "While we move from making things in China to making them elsewhere, we might take on some of the cost and raise prices a bit to show the higher costs." But they added, "It's not easy to raise prices because the market is still very competitive." ASRock also told PCMag that it already pays a 25% tax on its power supplies made in China. "For items like PSUs that already have an extra 25% tax, makers will keep doing what they've been doing," the company said.
If Trump administration doesn't follow through with his threats of huge tariffs against Taiwan, the PC gaming industry will primarily feel the effects on companies like ASRock and MSI (which makes its motherboards in Shenzhen, China). These are the component and peripheral makers that have part or all of their manufacturing processes in China. ASRock's announcement isn't a huge surprise, as we saw hints of this trend in late 2024 when PC Partner (second-biggest graphics card maker, producing PCBs for brands such as Inno3D and Zotac) moved its headquarters from China to Singapore. It will be no surprise if other top-tier brands such as GIGABYTE, MSI, and ASUS take similar actions sooner or later.
Source:
PCMag
If Trump administration doesn't follow through with his threats of huge tariffs against Taiwan, the PC gaming industry will primarily feel the effects on companies like ASRock and MSI (which makes its motherboards in Shenzhen, China). These are the component and peripheral makers that have part or all of their manufacturing processes in China. ASRock's announcement isn't a huge surprise, as we saw hints of this trend in late 2024 when PC Partner (second-biggest graphics card maker, producing PCBs for brands such as Inno3D and Zotac) moved its headquarters from China to Singapore. It will be no surprise if other top-tier brands such as GIGABYTE, MSI, and ASUS take similar actions sooner or later.
54 Comments on ASRock to Move Manufacturing Out of China Due to Trump's Tariffs
Sometimes you have to "test" your trading partners to see what they'll do so you'll know what to do yourself and to keep them honest.
It's not like it's never been done before or ever would be done again, happens all the time because business is business and takes care of itself when it comes down to it.
Like it or not they are in it for themselves just like anyone else out there so we have to be too - That's just the sad fact of it.
Yeah that's BS, without outsourcing your pollution, your "poverty" or indeed your employment you'd never have two or three $3 trillion corporations ~ who as you've only now realized don't give an eff about their own citizens either! What the US & most other countries around the world are doing is investing more & more in "assets" & less in real economy, which basically means you're looking to maximise wealth not employment or actual quality of life :ohwell:
This is the case at an individual/corporate & national(govt) level ~ blame it on greed or whatever but that's how I see it. And we'll need to go back to the dreaded "S" word if we need to fix some of this. I'm not even touching the wars or "proxy wars" US started just in the last century!
That's why you will read about companies that have "moved production out of China" in 2019 again now - when the tarrifs disappear, that extra step becomes an unnecessary expense and is abandoned.
you get the option to work in a field where you can ear a good living doing tech.
or you can go make an absolute fortune in finance with your skills
Perhaps if you like everything made in China you could live there? Or we could delete your job because it’s easier to just import everything.
Made in USA ASROCK Logo with USA FLAG on the packaging? Maybe a subcompany?
Been there twice I believe. It's out in the sticks. Been to MSI's factory outside Shanghai as well.
Old video, but the most recent one I could find.
As for ASRock, from what I was told, it seems to be Vietnam, at least for now, as they've been making their lower-end boards there for a few years already. No, not motherboards or graphics cards.
See the video above and you'll understand why. xina hasn't been cheap for close to a decade, but it's hard to move a factory, as it's not just about machine, but you need trained people to do the board assembly bits that aren't automated and a lot of it can't be automated. Then you need to have good QA people during the whole process so you don't end up with duds at the testing phase, as that's a waste of time and money. So even though making motherboards is a lot more automated today compared to just 10 years ago, it's still a lot of manual steps involved and some of those aren't taught in five minutes or even five months. Unfortunately they don't have the infrastructure when it comes to the component suppliers, so most Filipinos end up in the factories in Taiwan instead.
Last time I was at the Gigabyte factory, at least half of of the staff were Filipinos.
The business relationships with the Philippines haven't been the best either, as there have been a bunch of issues between Taiwan and the Philippines over the years, some involving how badly Filipinos have been treated in Taiwan, both in the manufacturing industry, but also as carers and maybe even worse, in the fishing and shipping industry. Somehow the Taiwanese feel like they can treat SE Asians like garbage and get away with it, which has caused a lot of issues with other countries too.
www.techpowerup.com/331170/msi-shows-behind-the-scenes-look-at-motherboard-manufacturing-process
I believe Mystery Ranch still make their higher end gear in America but a lot of their production went to Vietnam.
See above about the Philippines. It seems to be their Shenzhen factory. I've been to the Kunshan one, but that was over a decade ago.
www.msi.com/page/odm_service He was given a nice memento...
www.bbc.com/news/videos/cg7zp1dgmxmo