Asian mills & lathes -tariffs ?

[St. Paul Steam]

Since we have new leadership (this is not political) and Tariffs have been threatened as a tool to even the trade deficit between the US & China, do you think it may be wise to buy your import lathe or mill sooner rather than later ? Your thoughts...

 

[mksj]

There already is a tariff on imported machinery from PRC. You pay for it when buying a machine. It also makes Taiwanese machines closer in cost. Although everything has close to doubled (cost of the same model machine) since ~10 years ago.

 

[Janderso]

Probably wise to do it soon.

 

[Janderso]

There already is a tariff on imported machinery from PRC. You pay for it when buying a machine. It also makes Taiwanese machines closer in cost. Although everything has close to doubled (cost of the same model machine) since ~10 years ago.

I didn't know that

 

[St. Paul Steam]

There already is a tariff on imported machinery from PRC. You pay for it when buying a machine. It also makes Taiwanese machines closer in cost. Although everything has close to doubled (cost of the same model machine) since ~10 years ago.

I imagine it will/could increase even more substantially. I bought a PM935TS a few months back & gave what was 2K off of new price, they owner gave me all of his paperwork which included the purchase agreement from QMT , I actually paid about $200 less than his cost in 2018, but I did get a lot of tooling with it .

 

[St. Paul Steam]

There already is a tariff on imported machinery from PRC. You pay for it when buying a machine. It also makes Taiwanese machines closer in cost. Although everything has close to doubled (cost of the same model machine) since ~10 years ago.

 

[Jon_G]

That is a good question. Given what I’ve heard it is thought there will probably be new tariffs where none exist and there may be additional tariffs where they already exist. I do business with some companies there (electronics). I get the feeling they expect new/additional ones however the egg isn’t easy to unscramble because some circuits (which are proprietary and not made here) use chips and some discrete components made in the USA or US designs made in Germany and elsewhere. But for something less complex and produced in either country (for example maybe a common file) I would expect to many it would be sensible to tax the import to protect the domestic product. Very circuitous way of saying if you are thinking about buying something like a boring bar and are thinking it could be hit with new tariffs I would make an offer today rather than later. Sorry to wander off in the weeds.

 

[pontiac428]

Plenty of good values to be had in used capital equipment. I'm proud of the commercial-grade tooling I've bought in the last several years, and I've never once wished I could call an Asian tool import broker with a US warehouse for tech support. Not trying to sound insulting, just consider your alternatives to turn-key Chinese tools packaged by middle men under some illusion that new equals pristine. You get more for your money with used, production-class equipment. That's my rant. Hopefully tarrifs don't run us out of the hobby, so much is imported and little that is affordable is made domestically anymore.

 

[ShagDog]

I keep hoping that someone in the USA starts making good quality lathe in the smaller range like a South Bend 9. I think hobbyists like me would buy them up in a heartbeat.

 

[St. Paul Steam]

I keep hoping that someone in the USA starts making good quality lathe in the smaller range like a South Bend 9. I think hobbyists like me would buy them up in a heartbeat.

I have always hoped for this myself (I have 2 SB 9" lathes) but I'm a realist, they're all gone, & if they were here ....it would be 4X the price now. We've done this to ourselves.