Trumps tariffs now causing more problems

[exxos]

I was in two minds if to mention this or not as I don't really want to get involved with politics if I can help it.. But this is another huge issue which I'm having to contend with now it seems..

One of my current PCB suppliers in China has just told me:

Recently, the global trade situation has been complex and changeable, and the adjustment of tariff policies has had a huge impact on the electronic components market. The prices of various components we purchase are fluctuating extremely frequently. According to authoritative industry forecasts and our close communication with suppliers, it is highly likely that the prices of components will face a significant increase in the short term in the future.

Considering the current uncertainty of component prices, in order to help you effectively control costs and reduce additional expenses caused by the price increase of components, we sincerely suggest that you confirm and place your order as soon as possible. Once the prices of components rise significantly, it will be difficult to execute the costs of subsequent orders according to the previous quotations.

We would like to particularly remind you that the current quotation provided to you is only valid within the next 3 days. After three days, due to the price fluctuations of components, we will have to recalculate the quotation, and the new price may increase significantly due to the rising costs.

I mean we barely just got over the whole pandemic and parts shortages and prices going crazy, only to basically head in the same direction of higher prices and supply chain collapses yet again.. Really is not fun to be a small enterprise these days in any way shape or form

I suppose in a way it was good I got the motherboards made when I did.. I'm trying get a few other items in production to keep stocks up on some selected items but I am basically hitting the wall at every angle these days. It's all why I have very little time to actually produce any products any more because of "everything in the world" is getting in the way of getting anything done. It's all just a exponentially increasing uphill battle with no way to "win". Pretty much my entire day is probably 95% "wasted" on huge "time sink" issues like this. Things only ever get worse , and at some point you just simply have to say enough is enough !

[DigitalSkunk]

Sorry you keep running into so many roadblocks. I appreciate the effort you put in to keep your store and this forum running, and keeping prices reasonable (which is getting to be a harder and harder battle - especially with the high quality things you produce like the fully reengineered PSUs, etc) it has been very helpful diving into the Atari ST world.

The tariffs are so unnecessary and it is messing things up everywhere. I don't really have the budget for it right now, but trying to see if I can get an Amiga 1200 mechanical keyboard shipped in before it really hits the fan. Will probably save close to 100 versus if I wait until next month...

[exxos]

Sorry you keep running into so many roadblocks. I appreciate the effort you put in to keep your store and this forum running, and keeping prices reasonable (which is getting to be a harder and harder battle - especially with the high quality things you produce like the fully reengineered PSUs, etc) it has been very helpful diving into the Atari ST world.

Thanks.

Yeah, Prices of parts really isn't helping anymore by itself. Getting harder to find, rare, prices go up. Thats a battle on its own. Postage from China to UK has just got to much. It's why I am moving to UK fab houses now. Why bother paying lots of postage and tax when its "dead money". Id rather give that extra cost to a UK company. At least its going somewhere more useful!

I didn't think until today, that I basically buy stuff from mouser in the USA to send to China, or China buy the parts from USA on my behalf.. I've lost track what the tariff is now, something like 120% ? So expensive parts like £20 will be more like £40 now.. multiple by 100 parts for a batch of something.. and its not a small joke anymore..

I battled parts shortages and high prices during the pandemic, and I really don't want to go through all that again a second time..

The tariffs are so unnecessary and it is messing things up everywhere. I don't really have the budget for it right now, but trying to see if I can get an Amiga 1200 mechanical keyboard shipped in before it really hits the fan. Will probably save close to 100 versus if I wait until next month...

Yeah I know you mean, funds seem to be tight for everyone at the moment. It's costing like £35 to ship stuff to the USA these days.. plus new import tax.. Its only going to drive people away more and more now. I already lost the EU market totally. USA postage is already to much, slap on tariffs and I can see USA sales dropping off soon as well.

Scaling back operations is all I can do now. Concentrate on being more efficient and serving the UK market. Though no doubt our wonderful UK government will figure out how to finish me off totally. Governments are good at things like that! No doubt they'll be very interested in the near future when I stop filing a tax return! To late by then anyway.

[exxos]

LTT was also talking about it as it's likely going to hit pc builders etc

[DigitalSkunk]

Crap... Maybe I should get that new AMD motherboard and CPU cooler I was eyeballing as well. And then just not buy anything the rest of the year when it all kicks in...

[exxos]

Crap... Maybe I should get that new AMD motherboard and CPU cooler I was eyeballing as well. And then just not buy anything the rest of the year when it all kicks in...

Yeah now is a good time to panic but everything you might need..

I'm trying to figure out what parts I can still get and what it will allow me to continue producing. My credit card is not happy right now

[russellnash]

Broadly speaking you live in a permanent crisis situation created intentionally by politicians and attempts to comply with whatever they want in order to be able to go about your everyday life wont be very effective. I remember five years ago when politicians claimed that it was deadly to sit inside a restaurant but not outside, which sounded highly implausible, a restaurant owner built a new patio outside for around €200,000 so that his customers could sit there instead. Shortly afterwards he was told he had to close it. That was not a one off.

[exxos]

Sounds about right. Going from one crisis to the next is all I'm basically doing these days. I'm done with it all.

To quote wargames, "the only way to win, is not to play".

[alexh]

In the UK there are no reciprocal tariffs (yet) so the price of goods from USA are not affected?

Thanks to foreign policy the UK is closer to China, Korea, Taiwan than it has ever been and so we're not having a trade war.

They presumably have stock now they are not exporting to USA that could potentially come here?

Long term it is going to affect us all as the lowest cost providers in China will go bust. But in the short term I am only seeing things getting cheaper / easier to buy (until the low cost suppliers go bust).

I've ordered lots of things from AliExpress this week (Bluetooth adapters, HDMI adapters, Sega Saturn Saroo cartridge, RG35xx). Not seen any fluctuation in prices. (Edit: that could be due to the rising price of the £ though)

[exxos]

Im not aware of UK tariffs, but can't say I've looked.

Parts prices in china seen ok currently. But how long that will last.. it's hard to predict what will happen and what supply chains get trashed. It's possible the used market could take a hit again.. But if china are making a lot of chips then it might not cause to many issues..

All I know is some parts I buy come from USA to china for assembly. That's not going to happen. Mouser seem to be taking the pi$$ lately on EOL items making it already hard to buy things.

I was sourcing chips more from USA suppliers due to china being used parts and can't trust them. But it's only time before the UK government think it's a good idea to add USA tariffs I suppose.. so I'm looking for other suppliers now. It's all got very complicated to get anything done these days. I'm just faced with endless bad choices on what to do next.

I'm hunting for best prices on parts from various suppliers. But it's only doable if I buy in bulk.. not good when I'm out of funds. Buying low cost is AliExpress, I can't trust those chips for development. Buying one off new chips is expensive. Getting parts to china for assembly is tough. I can't assemble much myself anymore. Only option becomes UK assembly. But setup charge for a couple of prototypes isn't good.. plus I still have the problems sourcing the chips to start with. I'm more geared up for small volume runs.

Prototypes are a real PITA to do cheaply now. Its a pain to get JLC to get parts outside of their lib. I keep requesting quotes in the hope they can get the parts, or find a price which isnt insane.

My only workaround idea is asking one of my PCB suppliers to gear up for a small volume run but send me a sample to test first... Problem is I'll likely end up junking a load of PCBs if something does work right.. not cheap outside of JLC...

In anycase, the USA and china tariffs are really not helping matters. Things are way to problematical as it is.