News U.S. Lifts Chinese Import Tariffs Hitting GPUs, Motherboards

[Admin]

The U.S. has removed 352 products from the "Section 301" tariff applied on Chinese imports. The exclusions from the additional duties include printed circuit boards commonly used in motherboards and graphics cards.

U.S. Lifts Chinese Import Tariffs Hitting GPUs, Motherboards : Read more

 

[bigdragon]

I don't think we're going to see much in terms of GPU price drops until Intel enters the market. Some of the less well known brands will likely pass along some of the savings. I can't see mainstream companies with huge marketing budgets, like A$U$, doing the same though...not with a war raging on and the constant potential for natural disasters.

Motherboards are a different beast. I expect prices to drop there rather rapidly. That's a market that needs a correction, ASAP.

 

[tennis2]

Better late than never I guess...

 

[hotaru251]

companies: "no more tariff? woot more profit we can pocket!"

 

[10tacle]

As I posted here a week or two ago, GPU shortages will continue due to be among us it appears (with CPU and console APUs possibly as well) due to one crucial factor: neon gas used for laser machines.

Silicon chip manufacture (and therefore graphics card supply) requires Neon gas in order to power the lasers necessary for cutting designs into computer chips. The majority of Neon, which is a rare material, is produced as a byproduct of the steel manufacturing process in Ukraine and then purified for use. According to the Financial Times, Ukraine produces over 90% of the world’s semiconductor-grade Neon, most of this comes from the port cities of Odesa and Mariupol.

https://www.wepc.com/news/gpu-shortage-2022-ukraine-war-neon-gas-silicon-shortage-2022/

 

[tennis2]

I do recall when these tariffs hit, the affected items almost immediately went up 25% in cost. Since then, we've incurred an even more extreme stock shortage, so I presume the rollback will be slower an less pronounced.

 

[wifiburger]

tariffs on GPU and Motherboards were a stupid idea to begin with; it didn't accomplish a single thing & China gave 0 F about the whole thing

 

[sprizz324]

The U.S. has removed 352 products from the "Section 301" tariff applied on Chinese imports. The exclusions from the additional duties include printed circuit boards commonly used in motherboards and graphics cards.

U.S. Lifts Chinese Import Tariffs Hitting GPUs, Motherboards : Read more

When will our corporate grifters come to their collective senses? Leaving our technology in the hands of foreign entities is tantamount to surrender! Bring our businesses back along with the jobs required to run them.

 

[escksu]

When will our corporate grifters come to their collective senses? Leaving our technology in the hands of foreign entities is tantamount to surrender! Bring our businesses back along with the jobs required to run them.

Its entirely possible to move manufacturing back to USA. However, are you sure you will be willing to pay for the increased in prices? We are talking about an increase of 2x or more here. I think iphone 13 now is USD899? It will easily cost 1699 or even 2099 if its made in USA.

 

[kep55]

With so much of the manufacturing is computerised, why are builders still buying their kit from overseas? Between shipping costs, tariffs, QC oversight etc. I fail to see how it makes economic sense. Well, it does give an extra two bits to throw at Wall Street and the C-Levels back pockets.

 

[escksu]

As I posted here a week or two ago, GPU shortages will continue due to be among us it appears (with CPU and console APUs possibly as well) due to one crucial factor: neon gas used for laser machines.



https://www.wepc.com/news/gpu-shortage-2022-ukraine-war-neon-gas-silicon-shortage-2022/

Its going to get really really bad for the world and it will be more than just semiconductor. Batteries too will more expensive (esp. for EV!). Russia supply 20% of the world's class 1 grade nickel which is used for batteries. Yes, even lithium ion batteries contains quite a lot of nickel (see the link below).

Of course, with rising oil and gas prices, power will become more expensive as well. So, you will have to pay more for power when gaming. Even mining will be affected too.

Nickel in batteries

Learn why nickel is widely used in batteries and how nickel is making a vital contribution to the Li-ion batteries powering the electric car revolution.

nickelinstitute.org

 

[shady28]

This won't have much if any effect. The main reason has to do with supply/demand economics, and specifically the supply/demand curve. Basically at current prices, GPUs are bought up quickly if not immediately. Lowering the price, would actually increase demand even further, but there would be no supply for the higher demand - so prices would go back up. Which is exactly what they'll do.


Basically the only thing that will happen to high demand products from removing the tariffs, is that the government will get less revenue. The price won't change, because the supply won't change. It would be different if we were in a different place on this curve and capacity to build had some wiggle room, or perhaps was even capable of building more than demand, but right now it just doesn't matter.

Same thing is happening with oil prices - price will go up until sufficient demand is destroyed to reach equilibrium with supply. Fiddling with taxes just doesn't do anything to where that supply / demand / price equilibrium is on the supply/demand price curve, it just changes who gets paid.

 

[jacob249358]

Its entirely possible to move manufacturing back to USA. However, are you sure you will be willing to pay for the increased in prices? We are talking about an increase of 2x or more here. I think iphone 13 now is USD899? It will easily cost 1699 or even 2099 if its made in USA.

why would prices increase so much if we were to manufacture stuff in the US?

 

[GenericUser]

why would prices increase so much if we were to manufacture stuff in the US?

Because companies would have to pay US level wages to the workers making these products, instead of paying the currently cheaper wages to workers overseas. That increases their operating costs, which in turn get passed onto the customer. Companies outsource production for several reasons- cheaper labor is one of them. I don't know if the prices would go up as much as the other poster is saying, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did.

A lot of Americans want more US-based manufacturing, but nobody ever actually wants to pay for it.

 

[drivinfast247]

Because companies would have to pay US level wages to the workers making these products, instead of paying the currently cheaper wages to workers overseas. That increases their operating costs, which in turn get passed onto the customer. Companies outsource production for several reasons- cheaper labor is one of them. I don't know if the prices would go up as much as the other poster is saying, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did.

A lot of Americans want more US-based manufacturing, but nobody ever actually wants to pay for it.

It's not just wages but fines on operating a facility that has hazardous waste. Not to mention outrageous health insurance rates companies need to cover.

 

[tennis2]

It's not just wages but fines on operating a facility that has hazardous waste. Not to mention outrageous health insurance rates companies need to cover.

This^
Also the cost of building fabs is insanely expensive, even when they're HEAVILY government subsidized via tax breaks. Land costs money, the building costs money. Shipping raw material to the building costs money. so on and so on. Even building a >90% automated facility doesn't absolve you from these challenges.

 

[jacob249358]

Too bad the US doesn't export some more stuff.

 

[cryoburner]

Its entirely possible to move manufacturing back to USA. However, are you sure you will be willing to pay for the increased in prices? We are talking about an increase of 2x or more here. I think iphone 13 now is USD899? It will easily cost 1699 or even 2099 if its made in USA.

Really, the profit margins on Apple's products are huge, so they could likely remain profitable even at the same price points. However, they want the best of both worlds, being able to manufacture their products using what amounts to almost slave-labor, in factories that have little concern for environmental damage, while also selling the resulting products at high prices while projecting an image of being a "progressive" company. Now, prices would likely need to rise on products with relatively low profit margins, but Apple is probably one of the worst examples to use for that.

And really, a lot of the initial price hikes would be down to getting the infrastructure in place. It's kind of hard to manufacture things efficiently when you have to source components from all over the world, or even all over the country, and there just aren't factories in place for a lot of these components in the US. Eventually, getting those things established would likely improve the overall economic state of the country and make it more resilient against outside forces, but getting there would likely take a while.

 

[InvalidError]

This won't have much if any effect. The main reason has to do with supply/demand economics, and specifically the supply/demand curve. Basically at current prices, GPUs are bought up quickly if not immediately. Lowering the price, would actually increase demand even further, but there would be no supply for the higher demand - so prices would go back up.

Except prices have been steadily going down now that most crypto-miners have quit buying new cards in bulk, especially at the higher-end where some models are down 20-35% month-on-month and a growing selection of models being in-stock from first-party retailers.

Miners may have been snatching GPUs at much-greater-than-MSRP prices in bulk with scalpers snatching most of whatever is left to flip them to the highest bidders but most gamers aren't.

Having the import cost of some GPUs drop by as much as 25% could have a significant impact feeding the downward trend once GPUs are close to MSRP, which could happen sooner than anyone expected if the last month's decline is a good indicator of what is coming up next.

 

[jkflipflop98]

Too bad the US doesn't export some more stuff.

We could if we switched over to the metric system. No one wants to buy American made machines because they don't want to have to wait two weeks and pay $50 every time they need to replace a broken weirdo 3/16" bolt.

 

[jacob249358]

We could if we switched over to the metric system. No one wants to buy American made machines because they don't want to have to wait two weeks and pay $50 every time they need to replace a broken weirdo 3/16" bolt.

Im honestly amazed at how stupid the so called ¨standard¨ system is. Boiling is 212 and freezing is 32 instead of 100 and 0. We wouldn't need all these weird numbers and stuff. Everything in metric is by 10s

 

[InvalidError]

Im honestly amazed at how stupid the so called ¨standard¨ system is. Boiling is 212 and freezing is 32 instead of 100 and 0. We wouldn't need all these weird numbers and stuff.

Those nice round numbers are only correct for distilled water at sea level, normal ambient temperature and humidity used to define the scale. Work with anything else under anything other than standard lab conditions and you have to deal with weird numbers again regardless of the scale.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Celsius is stupid when describing temps. WAY too large movements between increments to describe temp accurately. Look at the diff in temp between 70F and 75F for instance. Then go fro 20-25 C. Yeah THATS stupid. So in Celsius the temperature changes are huge between increments and that’s why it’s stupid

You can keep your nice round stupid numbers

I am so glad the United States kept the imperial system. You guys can keep metric and If you don’t like American made stuff then don’t buy it because we are not ever changing

 

[jacob249358]

Celsius is stupid when describing temps. WAY too large movements between increments to describe temp accurately. Look at the diff in temp between 70F and 75F for instance. Then go fro 20-25 C. Yeah THATS stupid. So in Celsius the temperature changes are huge between increments and that’s why it’s stupid

You can keep your nice round stupid numbers

I am so glad the United States kept the imperial system. You guys can keep metric and If you don’t like American made stuff then don’t buy it because we are not ever changing

20c-25c is only 9f difference. But i think both ways are easy enough to understand that it doesn't matter which one you use except for conversion. Also I wouldn't be so confident about telling people to not buy our stuff. We have the most debt in the world.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

In the end it’s up to each to decide what they’re going to do and if they don’t like something because we use a different system than they do then that’s their choice I really don’t care. It’s not like we export a lot of manufacturered goods anymore