US President Donald Trump’s tariffs are helping to erode China’s appeal as a place where stuff gets made.
Ricoh Co is moving some manufacturing from China to Thailand to avoid potential risks from US-China trade tensions, the Japanese office-equipment maker said on Thursday.
The announcement came hours after a report that Taiwan’s Kenda Rubber Industrial Co (建大輪胎) is investing in Vietnam to do the same.
Those two examples are just the most recent from a chorus of executives who are citing the trade dispute as the final straw in their shift out of China, with margins already squeezed by rising labor costs, tougher environmental standards and domestic competition.
“The purpose is to minimize the impact of tariff increases,” Ricoh said in a statement, referring to the newly announced US tariffs on the rest of imports from China.
The firm is to produce all US-bound multifunction printers in Thailand instead of Shenzhen.
It said it would consider various changes to its production structure, including moving more production to Thailand from China, to “respond to various risks and improve efficiency.”
Big consumer brands Samsonite International SA, Macy’s Inc and Fossil Group Inc have all said that they are continuing to move production and sourcing out of China.
“We’re generally under an initiative to kind of shift what we can from China, which we were doing even ahead of tariffs,” Samsonite CEO Kyle Gendreau said on a call on Tuesday. “And we’re just continuing to accelerate on the mix of what’s coming from China to kind of mitigate the impacts there as well.”
The threatened tariffs of 25 percent on all exports to the US, which accounts for one-fifth of China’s total outbound shipments, are set to give China the stiffest test of its role as the core of the global supply chain.
For Cisco Systems Inc, shipping from other nations is the way to go.
“We still have some manufacturing happening in China, but we have greatly, greatly reduced our exposure working with our supply chain and our suppliers,” chief financial officer Kelly Kramer said on a call with analysts on Wednesday when asked about the impact of the tariffs. “So the impact that we’re expecting, again we are trying to mitigate.”
Retailing giant Walmart Inc, whose clout with suppliers gives it some room to maneuver, indicated that shoppers would absorb some of the costs of higher levies.
“We will do everything we can to keep prices low, but increased tariffs lead to increased prices,” chief financial officer Brett Biggs said in an interview on Thursday.
Finding alternative manufacturers “is one of a number of actions that our merchants are considering,” he added.
Some businesses have already moved following last year’s tariffs on the first batch of Chinese products.
Communication equipment producer Sierra Wireless Inc has almost completed moving some production to Vietnam, reducing the firm’s exposure to further trade flaring, chief financial officer David McLennan said on May 9.
While Chinese exporters reel at the escalating tensions, other nations and businesses are extending invitations to those driven out of China.
If the trade dispute between the US and China continues, it opens “a door for South America to occupy this space,” Fernando Queiroz, CEO of the Sao Paulo-based meat producer Minerva SA, said on Wednesday.
STIMULUS PLANS: An official said that China would increase funding from special treasury bonds and expand another program focused on key strategic sectors China is to sharply increase funding from ultra-long treasury bonds this year to spur business investment and consumer-boosting initiatives, a state planner official told a news conference yesterday, as Beijing cranks up fiscal stimulus to revitalize its faltering economy. Special treasury bonds would be used to fund large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, said Yuan Da (袁達), deputy secretary-general of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission. “The size of ultra-long special government bond funds will be sharply increased this year to intensify and expand the implementation of the two new initiatives,” Yuan said. Under the program launched last year, consumers can
Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp said they are leaving a global climate-banking group, becoming the latest Wall Street lenders to exit the coalition in the past month. In a statement, Citigroup said while it remains committed to achieving net zero emissions, it is exiting the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). Bank of America said separately on Tuesday that it is also leaving NZBA, adding that it would continue to work with clients on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The banks’ departure from NZBA follows Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Wells Fargo & Co. The largest US financial institutions are under increasing pressure
FUTURE TECH: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang would give the keynote speech at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which is also expected to highlight autonomous vehicles Gadgets, robots and vehicles imbued with artificial intelligence (AI) would once again vie for attention at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, as vendors behind the scenes would seek ways to deal with tariffs threatened by US president-elect Donald Trump. The annual Consumer Electronics Show opens formally in Las Vegas tomorrow, but preceding days are packed with product announcements. AI would be a major theme of the show, along with autonomous vehicles ranging from tractors and boats to lawn mowers and golf club trollies. “Everybody is going to be talking about AI,” Creative Strategies Inc analyst Carolina Milanesi said. “From fridges to ovens
Twenty years after he was a young, struggling actor in Toronto, Thomas Lo (盧瑞麟) is now the one giving young Asian actors their big breaks. He just had to go to Hong Kong to do it. The Chinese Canadian has been the creative director of one of the territory’s biggest TV broadcasting companies for only a few years, but is already making original English-language content to reach viewers around the world. “It was a bit of a full-circle moment for me,” Lo said. “You see more Asians, but you’re still seeing the same Asians on screen, right? We’re looking for more opportunities
RSS