This Week in Imaging: Sharp, Kyocera May Also Shift Production to Avoid U.S. Tariffs

Earlier this month, we reported on how Ricoh Company announced that it’s shifting some of its copier/MFP production from its China manufacturing facilities to its facilities in Thailand in order to avoid U.S. tariffs on China-made goods. (Printers, laptops, and cell phones are targeted in the United States’ next round of tariffs if a deal isn’t made with China.)

This week,  the Nikkei-Asian Review reports that both Kyocera and Sharp are also considering shifting  production of their copiers designed for sale in the United States out of China, in the case of Kyocera, to Vietnam. According to the Nikkei, Kyocera’s 2018 global revenue from office equipment was about $34 billion, with U.S. revenue making up about 25-percent of that. Sharp is said to be considering shifting production of its MFPs out of China and to Thailand, and also shifting some production of laptop PCs – a market it recently re-entered – out of China.

Meanwhile HP Inc. President and CEO Dion Weisler has hinted that HP, which has manufacturing facilities all over the world, will also move some of its production in order to minimize imposition of tariffs.

Other companies outside of the office-imaging industry are said to be also considering moving production out of China and into other Southeast Asian countries or to Mexico. So ultimately, while the United States’ imposition of tariffs was designed to correct a trade imbalance between the United States and China, the ultimate result could be that China’s neighbors in Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam and Thailand, may benefit the most.

This Week in Imaging:

HP Inc. Executives Discuss Second-Quarter Results

Epson Rolls Out 100-PPM A3 Mono MFP for Enterprises

HP Launches World’s First Laser Printer with User-Refillable Toner Tank

Ricoh Introducing Alexa Voice Control for Ricoh Intelligent MFPs

Additional Epson Scanners Now Certified for Use with PaperVision

New Epson Voice-Activated Color Inkjet All-in-Ones for Home Use

Canon Requests Multiple Amazon Toner Take-Downs, Settles with Alphaink