(Yicai) April 14 -- Chinese firms that supply Apple gave up big early gains made after the US government decided to exempt smartphones, computers, and other electronics from its so-called reciprocal tariffs.

After surging by as much as 7 percent, Luxshare Precision Industry [SHE: 002475] closed up 0.1 percent at CNY32.20 (USD4.42) in Shenzhen today, while Goertek [SHE: 002241] ended 1.2 percent higher at CNY21.33, paring a 6.7 percent at the opening. Lens Technology [SHE: 300433] jumped 7 percent before closing 0.8 percent lower at CNY20.

After several rounds of tariff hikes, US President Donald Trump raised levies on China to 145 percent on April 11. However, the US Customs and Border Protection said later the same day that phones, computers, and other electronics would be exempt from this upon entering the country. 

The move was widely seen as an effort to alleviate the tariff costs that American consumers would face when buying China-made electronics such as iPhones. 

But Trump took to social media yesterday to say that "there was no Tariff 'exception' announced on Friday" and clarified that these products were just temporarily removed from the tariff list and will be “moving to a different tariff bucket.”

"Apple had been stockpiling iPhones for the US market since the Lunar New Year, building up over two months of inventory," Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at TF International, said previously. “This buffer should shield US sales in the second quarter of this year from the impact of tariffs.”

"However, this front-loading may lead to a sharper disruption to the supply chain during the model transition compared to prior years," he noted.

The impact of the new US tariffs would be limited, several leading Chinese suppliers to Apple have said. Luxshare said it mitigates the effects of market fluctuations and geopolitical uncertainties through a diversified customer base, global production layout, and independent innovation in core technologies.

In addition, Luxshare, Lens, and Goertek all said that supply chain companies in electronics manufacturing typically operate under a free-on-board model, where the importer rather than the supplier is responsible for customs duties.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev