Ink world magazine’s Editor, David Savastano, has been exploring the impact of recently imposed tariffs on ink prices in a newly published article.
Savastano writes, “There has been a lot of concerns over the increasing tariffs that are being levied against more and more products” such as “raw materials that are used for inks.”
These tariffs, set at 10 percent but due to jump to 25 percent in January, are already having an effect, “drawing resulting price increases from ink manufacturers”. They are the result of the well-documented trade war raging between China and the United States, which began when President Trump instated a long list of tariffs on Chinese goods in April 2018.
These tariffs resulted in retaliatory duties imposed by China.
On 24 September 2018, Ed Bryztwa, of the American Chemistry Council, weighed in on these tariffs and their ramifications.
“With the U.S. and China imposing another round of tariffs on an increasing number of products, the cost of doing business in the United States is rising,” Brzytwa said. “U.S. manufacturers today face a steep climb to retain our position as one of the world’s leading, low-cost producers of chemicals. A total of 1,517 chemicals and plastics imports from China, valued at $15.4 billion (€13.4 billion), have now been targeted across all three U.S. lists. The tariffs will cut off U.S. manufacturers from international supply chains and from importing inputs that help keep them competitive in the global marketplace. At the same time, retaliatory tariffs by China have hit more than 1,000 U.S. chemicals and plastics exports, worth an estimated $10.8 billion (€9.3 billion), erecting a huge barrier to China’s growing markets.
“The tariffs – in effect a tax – put U.S. chemical manufacturers at a disadvantage, but we aren’t the only ones that will suffer the impact. Since chemistry touches 96 percent of all manufactured goods, taxes on our industry will ultimately raise the prices of popular consumer products – everything from cars and trucks to electronics.”
Bryztwa revealed that the chemical industry has invested over $200 billion (€174 billion) in various US projects, continuing, “Around half of that investment is still in the planning or development stages and therefore vulnerable to delay or abandonment as a result of the new tariffs imposed on our industry,” he said. “Nearly all of that investment is focused on serving the global market. American businesses, which may have to consider shifting their production overseas to avoid the tariffs or face the possibility of having to close up shop entirely, deserve the opportunity to be heard.”
A number of companies working in the chemical industry are already feeling the pinch, among them Flint Group and Sun Chemical.
“The recent Trump administration tariff initiatives will significantly impact the chemical industry and the raw materials that support printing inks if implemented at the reported levels,” said Sun Chemical’s Jeffrey Shaw, adding, ““Not only will the direct tariff impact be significant, but they will impact the secondary and tertiary levels throughout almost every category’s value chain.”
