SpaceX has asked its Taiwanese suppliers to relocate their manufacturing operations because of“Geopolitical risks,” Reuters reported Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter and corporate documents. Last year, Musk said Taiwan was an integral part of China, the report said. SpaceX’s latest request puts Elon Musk’s relationship with the island under scrutiny. SpaceX has not commented on the news as of press time.
SpaceX requires its manufacturers to produce outside Taiwan, the sources said. SpaceX CEO Ellon Musk.
According to the report, a source from a contractor that supplies components for SpaceX’s“Star chain” satellite internet products said that, due to geopolitical risks, SpaceX asked its manufacturers to produce outside Taiwan, that has forced many manufacturers to shift production to Vietnam.
Jingpeng Industries, a satellite parts maker that recently became a supplier to SpaceX, told Reuters that the US company had asked it to shift manufacturing of new orders from Taiwan to Thailand. Another source working with a Taiwanese satellite component maker said SpaceX had simply asked suppliers to move manufacturing out of Taiwan.
Some Taiwanese companies, especially in the strategic satellite and semiconductor industries, have taken steps to reduce their dependence on domestic manufacturing, Reuters reported. Two Vietnamese factory workers and a contractor representative from Qicer Technology, a Taiwanese supplier to SpaceX, said, since this year, the company has been making“Star chain” routers and other network equipment at its factory in Henan province, about an hour’s drive south of the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. One of the workers said that Acer’s expansion in Vietnam was in large part to meet SpaceX’s needs.
Sita technology, another SpaceX satellite component supplier, also invested in a new plant in Vietnam this year. Suntech declined to comment on individual customers, citing confidentiality rules, but said it was expanding in south-east Asia, including building new factories in Thailand and Vietnam.
About 50 companies in Taiwan produce ground equipment and sensitive components, Reuters reported, citing economic and industry data. The authorities estimate that the industry produced more than T $200bn last year. SpaceX has about a dozen direct suppliers in Taiwan, which in turn rely on dozens of local contractors, according to a source working with the island’s satellite industry.