Tariffs in the USA going to make everything we do more expensive.

G

Greg_E

Veteran
I just got an email about how the new tariffs are going to make certain Avid products more expensive, this included Nexus storage which they are predicting an 8 to 20% increase (depending on the number of hard drives installed). I assume this is going to filter all the way down to the "cheap" SD cards that many of us are using, pretty much everything we use is built outside of the USA.

If any of you are Key Code Media customers, you probably got the same email.

Have any other vendors/manufacturers sent out similar messages?

This is mostly an FYI posting, please don't turn this into a politics argument, the thread will just get deleted.
 
For the most part, tariffs don't make manufacturers change location, they just make stuff more expensive. Luckily for you, this tariff increase affects many other things apart from what you have to buy as inputs for your business, so, inflation will be widespread and you'll be able to raise your prices (or at least it will be easier to do this than if it was only your inputs that were becoming more expensive). Almost every economist will tell you raising tariffs is a dumb thing to do, but at least in this case the pain will be spread in a relatively even fashion.
 
Tariffs will make some manufacturers change factories, and other factories will go bust, and many new factories will not be built locally and instead overseas locations will be found.
 
When I pair things like this with the general decrease in budgets along with the recently new California State Board of Equalization + IRS requirement that ANYONE I hire for ANYTHING (yes, even a one day PA to go get lunch for us) needs to run through a payroll service with an added 32% cost just for payroll, workers comp, insurance, makes me think I am going to pursue more non-production company scenarios for my career, writing, corporate producing where the 32% payroll hit isn't coming out of my pocket. I just had two inital payments hit our checking account for two new projects underway and when I look at the actual profit leftover, production is turning into a dead end street because non of these fixed costs are ever going to go down and there will be even more fixed costs added, esepcially in California, the only state that actively drives business to leave it. I can raise costs for clients, to a point, but I can't just tack on an additional 32% charge to every production, clients will go elsewhere with producers who break the rules and hire everyone as indie contractors when the law says that they can't. I can't risk that, there have been recent prosecutions and jail time/fines handed out, not worth the risk.

Increased Tariff costs are really the least of your problems here and coming as indie producers and company runners unless you thrive on GAS. If you only work freelance and don't hire and buy a lot of new toys all of the time, then I guess it's more of an issue?
 
I purchased four bikes online the last few years from bikes direct in Texas and I just received this email from them.
43446135674_fa256f0764_z.jpg
 
I wonder if some businesses are just using this for an excuse to mark up prices. Wouldn't surprise me if this is happening in some areas.

But then again, name a USA made bicycle.
 
There are plenty makers of low-volume high-end bike frames made in the US. But most of those use components (and I think in some cases tubing) made in Asia (and mainly in Peoples Republic of China) of course the vast majority of bikes, even fancy European brands such as Pinarello, are made in Asia. The tariffs that go into effect this week I think only apply to electric bikes (e-bikes) and addon electric motors that can attach to regular bikes... And only those, I think, made in the Peoples Republic of China.

There were hearing yesterday about adding a 25% tariff to "regular" bike frames, components, etc from China. I don't think there are tariffs proposed on Taiwanese-based manufacturers (such as Giant and Kinesis) who also build lots of frames for various brands. But I'm not sure about that. And a decision on those "extra" tariffs is still a few weeks off, I think. I'm basing all this on chats with my friends who work in the bike industry (I used to be a racer and mechanic and still ride for fun) and also sometimes checking out the US bike-industry journal, BRAIN: https://www.bicycleretailer.com

Closer to home for all of us, a friend at US-based maker of video/film production equipment said at NAB that the price of the (smallish) custom aluminum cases that he had manufactured overseas (I'm not sure where) had increased $5 because of the tariffs and that the increase was proposed and implemented in between placing and receiving the order. I.e., it was an unexpected hit on a product that isn't all that expensive and doesn't have huge price margins. So I think the tariffs will be hitting us in places we don't expect (hard drives, cases holding LCD panels, etc).

Bummer because I was planning on buying some more stuff this year and even US-brands have lots of Chinese parts. Sigh.
 
The one I posted was interesting due to the claim of 100% domestic. However, you're right in that tariff thinking from the last century doesn't work in a modern economy since products tend to have countries of origin rather than one, with end result of an extra tax on goods. The market impact will be a recession since folks will often cancel or delay purchases.
 
Nothing against Reeb; their bikes look cool. But lots of Shimano parts on their bikes (I can't recall where Cane Creek, Stans, etc make their parts; maybe US?). And I think Maxxis tires are made in Taiwan. But again, nice bikes.
https://reebcycles.com/bikes/mountain/dikyelous2/

I try to buy domestic in general. But I just don't always do that. And like you say, the thing is more complex than "made in US" vs "assembled in the US." I'm working on a web-series project following some small US manufacturers; they're all patriots and want to do as much work as possible in the US (for pride, marketing, QC, and also to provide local jobs)...but they're all in competitive markets and well, it's tough. On background, the people I'm dealing with have mixed at best views on the tariffs...

No idea how this will all play out.
 
how long are these tariffs suppose to last? Or projected to? (Assuming trump stays in office, and then assuming trump is replaced by democrats next go?)

Anything big we should we purchase ASAP? Things on my list were sounddevices mixpre 6, samsung/sony 4K hdr TV, glidecam, macbook pro, dainese motorcycle leathers, scubapro BCD, misc.
 
I'm not certain it applies to Japanese made goods, but even a lot of those "traditional" Japanese brands are made in China. How many Sony products are made in China? Pretty much every silicon based device is going to have a large number of parts made in China, so RAM to computers main boards will be hit.

That new graphics card everyone is drooling over will get a whack that may or may not even be shown in the pricing posted.
 
Greg_E said:
I'm not certain it applies to Japanese made goods, but even a lot of those "traditional" Japanese brands are made in China. How many Sony products are made in China? Pretty much every silicon based device is going to have a large number of parts made in China, so RAM to computers main boards will be hit.

That new graphics card everyone is drooling over will get a whack that may or may not even be shown in the pricing posted.
Click to expand...

Samsung, UMC, TSMC, and Micron are among the biggest semiconductor manufacturers in the world (4 of the top 10). I think Global Foundries (co-founded by Fujitsu and AMD before becoming an independent foundry) might be in the top 10 as well, along with Intel (of course).

None of those are based in China, so hopefully the impact of the tariffs won't pervade the ENTIRE electronics industry... but it will probably affect pricing of anything made by Foxconn, and its direct competitors.
 
And Foxconn assembles a lot of stuff! I know many Samsung products are made and assembled in China and pretty sure the work is done by Foxconn (but could be wrong).
 
Tamerlin said:
Samsung, UMC, TSMC, and Micron are among the biggest semiconductor manufacturers in the world (4 of the top 10). I think Global Foundries (co-founded by Fujitsu and AMD before becoming an independent foundry) might be in the top 10 as well, along with Intel (of course).

None of those are based in China, so hopefully the impact of the tariffs won't pervade the ENTIRE electronics industry... but it will probably affect pricing of anything made by Foxconn, and its direct competitors.
Click to expand...

But Samsung and Micron, while not headquartered in mainland China, have some big manufacturing plants there:
https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/about-us/manufacturing-centers/

https://www.micron.com/about/locations

I think some of the other big companies do too. So the impact might be pretty widespread
 
I don't think any products are safe from tariffs. Apart from the fact that global production chains are extremely complex, my impression is that the trade war started small, with just a few products affected, but is escalating into wider and wider ranges of products, as other countries retaliate and the US extends tariffs to more stuff. So yeah, I think you're going to end up paying more for basically everything. Good news is, that's a lot of revenue for the government, so they could lower your taxes if you're lucky (it would be a move from direct to indirect taxes, which is not a bad thing if it doesn't separate the US from those global production chains).
 
Samuel H said:
I don't think any products are safe from tariffs. Apart from the fact that global production chains are extremely complex, my impression is that the trade war started small, with just a few products affected, but is escalating into wider and wider ranges of products, as other countries retaliate and the US extends tariffs to more stuff. So yeah, I think you're going to end up paying more for basically everything. Good news is, that's a lot of revenue for the government, so they could lower your taxes if you're lucky (it would be a move from direct to indirect taxes, which is not a bad thing if it doesn't separate the US from those global production chains).
Click to expand...

Funniest thing I've read, so far, today.
 
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