Wednesday, January 6th 2021
GPUs to See Price Increase Due to Import Tariffs, Other PC Components to Follow
Yesterday, we have reported that ASUS is officially increasing the prices of their graphics cards and motherboards, due to increased component and logistics costs. What the company meant by that was not exactly clear to everyone, as it looked like the company has adjusted to the current market prices exceeding the MSRP of components like graphics cards. The GPUs are today selling at much higher prices compared to the original MSRP and it is representing a real problem for consumers. Today, we get to see what is the underlying problem behind the announcement we saw yesterday and if we are going to see more of that in the close future.
According to the New York Times, the Chinese import tariff exemptions have expired with the arrival of a new year (2021) and we can expect the tariffs to start from 7.5%-25%, which will massively increase component costs. A Reddit user has noted that MSRP will increase about $80 for every major GPU manufacturer like ASUS, GIGABYTE, PNY, Zotac, etc. so we are expecting MSRP adjustment from other companies to follow just like ASUS did. The import tariff exemptions are also supposed to increase MSRPs of other PC components like motherboards, SSDs, PSUs, cases... everything without exemption. As a product of a trade war between China and the Trump administration, it remains a question will these tariffs get easier shortly, so consumers can afford their desired components.
Sources:
Tom's Hardware, Reddit
According to the New York Times, the Chinese import tariff exemptions have expired with the arrival of a new year (2021) and we can expect the tariffs to start from 7.5%-25%, which will massively increase component costs. A Reddit user has noted that MSRP will increase about $80 for every major GPU manufacturer like ASUS, GIGABYTE, PNY, Zotac, etc. so we are expecting MSRP adjustment from other companies to follow just like ASUS did. The import tariff exemptions are also supposed to increase MSRPs of other PC components like motherboards, SSDs, PSUs, cases... everything without exemption. As a product of a trade war between China and the Trump administration, it remains a question will these tariffs get easier shortly, so consumers can afford their desired components.
76 Comments on GPUs to See Price Increase Due to Import Tariffs, Other PC Components to Follow
But don't worry, I'm sure TDS will torpedo this ASAP.
And I don't think it will go to the USA. Wages in the US are high (and that will hit bottom line, and when that happens, prices will be high anyway). I can see them moving it to Mexico, Vietnam, India, etc as their wages are much lower.
Edit: Now I think about it, I would be offering the Philippines opportunity to build these plants in their country. A lot of high tech workers in Taiwan come from the Philippines and they have already a pretty good tech base as it is. At least more so than India or Vietnam.
I assume that's not affected and individual subcomponents that are manufactured only in China get a price hike?
Also rest of the world? Does China impose these price hikes only to direct imports to USA or is this universal?
Because i assume companies can get around this by first exporting from China to Taiwan. Doing the assembly there and then exporting finished products from Taiwan to other countries including USA.
That problem as i understand is workforce and fab space restrictions in Taiwan compared to China. Taiwanese workforce is more expensive and Taiwan mostly has headquarters and warehouses for products not fabs.
Imho the world should really move more production elsewhere like Philippines, Vietnam, India etc. Better conditions for workers and less export taxes. Apple is already moving in that direction.
1. The US will never be able to pay their manufacturing workers as little as China(or other less developed nations) pay them.
2. Overseas shipping is extremely cheap(see US Cotton production).
3. The EPA is a good thing. Do you want to go back to a time when US river-ways caught on fire? www.worldatlas.com/articles/is-the-cuyahoga-river-the-only-river-to-ever-catch-on-fire.html
I could also go into the politics side and how doing it in the US can limit their sales outside of the country but I'll refrain from that.
Corporations are interested in keeping money in their pockets. Cheap labor, ease of doing business (lack of regulations), cheap infrastructure (big one), cheap utilities and cheap logistics is in their interest. This isn't in the US, Canada or Europe.
Didn't say epa wasn't a good thing just that it can be a bad thing at the same time protecting every little puddle and stopping/ delaying projects indefinitely
Do you remember all the shovel ready projects mess lol epa delays projects for years even government funded projects.
Soon as shipping companies have to know exactly what is really in a package and insure that it won't be as cheap
Right now it's just a joke no accountability at all.
Local government failures is always why bad stuff happens call that the epa okay I call it localized failure someone got paid to not look very hard.
Man, these prices are a crime.
But you are probably right about the wage costs we'll never be able to compete with, since they want to pay people $15-20/hr in the US to nuke burgers at McDonald's for minimum wage... which was always a kids job when I was younger... Not so much anymore, but we can't talk about that without getting in trouble by the PC police.
Another thing that gets ignored, is while we aren't polluting our local environment with all the chemicals needed for PCB and semiconductor manufacturing, it doesn't change the fact that we all live on the same planet. Then you have child and slave labor issues with people living in factories jumping off roof tops...
If they don't raise the prices here, it will likely mean you will be paying the same as what i pay.
It's like others have raised, the automation assemble tools that we in America just don't have the companies and skills to make like we once did. If you are an American company where do you have to (almost) go to get such automated equipment made? For the years I was in manufacturing. US contractors worked to create such equipment here. Then little by little, a non critical mold was sourced from China and they'd price it cheap if we ran that tool there. Once you did 10 weeks of non-conforming parts for them to tweak the mold you might get good parts, or pay through nose now to get your mold back here to fix and run! Perhaps we'll have have a 10 spindle automated screw machine, a conveyer line, fixtures and jigs, we had done in-house although it moved because it was so appealing. Yet our machinist hung-on correcting improving their crap as China got better. Next, the box and container folks we work with for years just down the street, who worked just-in-time. Now sure purchasing in bulk now meant a new warehouse location to hold the excess stock of packaging there a cost someone negated. Penny pincher saying so much cheaper (and getting a bonus). Sure savings up front, but now the packaging is marked wrong and unusable... Little by little the whole inter-dependent systems foundation was eroding, the highly skilled jobs gone. You can't just flick a switch and turn it all back on!
All you end-up with (make) is insurrection when you are diluted enough to believe the lies.
Sure you can move the PCB fab to, say, Arizona. But where to buy suitable capacitors, power CMOS, ..., etc? From China again? In China these can be bought literally nextdoor to the PCB fab.
Same goes for smartphones, laptops, etc....
Thanks to continious development and great games and services you will always get the best graphics on PC first.
As for prices they are getting rediculious they need to get down.