China/USA trade war tactics

The USA has recently imposed further tariffs on imports from China. The trade war does not look like it will be ending any time soon. So how do these tariffs work for our clients? Does China even make financial sense any more? It does for China injection molding and prototyping.

 

China has been central to manufacturing supply chains for many years now. Even under the current climate will continue to be for a long time to come. But tariffs imposed on Chinese imports certainly make the whole process more expensive, so what can you do about it?

 

The majority of HLH’s exports to the USA are tariff-free and here is why. What we make for clients in the USA breaks down generally into three categories.

 

Services

Injection mold/die-cast tooling

Prototypes –  which includes 3D printed parts, CNC machining and vacuum casting as well as some injection moldings

Production Parts – injection moldings, die castings, machined parts, 3D printed production runs

 

Don’t export the molds for either injection molding or die casting from China. Instead, choose to run the production from our state of the art facility in southern China. With China injection molding you don’t export the tools. Which means the tooling, generally one of the more expensive items is completely tariff-free. HLH offers China injection molding for both prototypes, bridge tooling, and low/mid volume production.

 

Prototypes are tariff-free. Prototypes are parts manufactured as part of the design and development process. They are not intended for resale and so are not covered by the tariffs. These can be shipped with zero import duties under the HTSUS code 9817.85.01

 

Production parts are covered by the tariffs. But HLH specializes in low volume, high mix work. This is generally very expensive to have manufactured elsewhere. So you will find even with tariffs HLH is still very very competitive. Also by keeping the tooling at HLH and choosing China injection molding you save on import duties which more than covers the duty you might pay on parts. As different items have different tariffs it is always worth checking what the right code is here.

 

HLH has a team of dedicated project managers on hand to best advise how to deliver your project to spec and to budget. Talk to our team today, info@hlhprototypes.com

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