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WINTER 2020

  • Text
  • Plating
  • Engineering
  • Zinc
  • Association
  • Industrial
  • Distributors
  • Products
  • Screws
  • Fasteners
  • Fastener
Distributor's Link Magazine Winter 2020 / Vol 43 No1

46 THE DISTRIBUTOR’S

46 THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK GLOBALFASTENERNEWS.COM by JASON SANDEFUR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR news@globalfastenernews.com TARIFFS DOMINATE FASTENER NEWS AGAIN IN 2019 For the second straight year, tariffs were the dominant 2019 story in the fastener industry. In December, U.S. President Donald Trump cancelled tariff increases on 0 billion worth of Chinese imports after an agreement between the two governments was reached. The tariffs were set to increase to 30% from 25% on the goods, including bolts, screws and other fasteners manufactured in China. “U.S. and Chinese officials announced on Friday that the U.S. and China had finally agreed to the phase one agreement after a contentious 18-month trade war,” CNBC reports. “The two major economies plan to sign the partial accord in the first week of January.” On September 1, the U.S. imposed 15% levies on another 0 billion worth of Chinese imports, including include all iron and steel nuts (HTS subheading 7318.16.00) imported from China. “We have a list that will go manufacturing, agriculture, services, energy and the like,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer stated. “There’ll be a total for each one of those.” However, many details of the deal still appear “murky,” CNBC reports. “The agreement includes changes regarding intellectual property, technology and financial services. Beijing said it would substantially increase agricultural purchases, but didn’t specify how much, and Trump has insisted that China will buy more American crops.” Trump’s original 10% duty on fasteners from China was applied September 24, 2018. On October 31, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) began accepting tariff exclusion requests for all Chinese iron and steel nuts and other imports subject to an additional 15% tariff (List 4 tariffs) that went into effect on September 1. Additional exclusions for Chinese imports subject to an additional 25% tariff (List 3 tariffs), including fasteners, “will be issued soon in response to approximately 150 exclusion requests,” according to USTR. The exclusion request process indicated U.S. tariffs on Chinese fasteners and other products are unlikely to be removed or reduced for at least the next 12 months. The tariffs, originally set to increase October 1 to 30% from 25% on the goods, including bolts, screws and other fasteners manufactured in China, were delayed two weeks “as a gesture of goodwill.” U.S. duties imposed September 1 on another 0 billion worth of Chinese imports, including all iron and steel nuts (HTS subheading 7318.16.00) imported from China, remain in place. China’s fastener exports declined 2.4% to 2,094,346 tons in the first half of 2019, Fastener World reports. The average export price per ton increased 2.34% to US.91 during the period. “Until 2018, China’s fastener export had demonstrated an increase in volume for three consecutive years and had been demonstrated an increase in price for two consecutive years; however, in the first half of 2019, China’s fastener export already showed a decline in its export volume,” according to Fastener World. In January, China’s fastener exports totaled 417,918 tons (the highest volume in a single month of the year), according to Fastener World. That volume shrank to 218,447 tons in February. Beginning in March, the volume achieved a three-month gain reaching 410,235 tons in May. But in June, the volume dropped again to 370,156 tons. “It is estimated that China will suffer a difficult time in increasing its fastener export again in 2019,” according to Fastener World. BUSINESS FOCUS ARTICLE CONTINED ON PAGE 126

SOLUTION INDUSTRIES LLC SOLUTION MAN WELCOMES YOU THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK 47 21555 Drake Road, Strongsville, OH 44149 TEL 1-866-297-8656 FAX 440-816-9501 EMAIL sales@solutionind.com WEB www.solutionind.com Solution Man is rolling out the “welcome mat” and encouraging everyone to come visit Solution Industries at our new location in Strongsville, Ohio. After busting through the walls of our old building (something like seven times in the last 15 years) we are happy to be under a new roof with plenty of room for expansion. Not only have we added warehouse space, we’ve also bolstered our workforce to accommodate our stock and release programs. We are sitting on over eight acres of land so there is plenty of room for expansion, and our office employees are quite pleased they are no longer scattered about the building or staring into the side of their coworker’s heads! A little breathing space to continue to service our customers!! So, if you plan to be in the Cleveland area in 2020, we’d like to invite you to visit (or revisit) Team Solution. At Solution, we continuously strive to drive down the cost of secondary operations for our distributor customer base. Sure, we are still a GREAT source for zinc plated sockets, but we partner with all the platers, applicators, drillers, importers, domestic and manufacturers… all in an effort to help our customers manage the costs of pesky secondary operations. We like to think of ourselves as a Master Distributor who provides full service VMI support. Also, don’t forget to tweet Solution Man’s travels! Even though he’s made his home in Strongsville, we love seeing where you take him. Last but not least, we’d like to congratulate Laura Vath (AKA Solution Woman) for her 15 years of service. BUSINESS FOCUS ARTICLE SOLUTION INDUSTRIES

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