There’s been a lot of talk lately about tariffs, but what might they mean in the desktop 3D printing world?
The current management of the US has been talking up the notion of imposing tariffs on imported goods from a variety of countries, most specifically China. I believe the idea is to stimulate domestic manufacturing by making imported goods more expensive.
Tariffs are not paid by the other country. They are paid by domestic buyers as a kind of tax on imported items. A country cannot tax another country; it can only tax its own citizens and companies.
In the desktop 3D print world, this could be a problem for many, as quite a few devices and supplies are sourced from China. Presumably, at some point, these will be taxed, perhaps at rates as high as 100%. In other words, a US$500 Chinese 3D printer might cost American buyers US$1000 instead.
This would basically lock out some buyers that would otherwise be unable to afford a higher-priced machine. That would drop sales for the Chinese companies, who would also suffer.
Could American buyers instead purchase locally made 3D printers? There are far fewer options.
One that comes to mind is LulzBot, based in North Dakota. They produce competent 3D printers, although nowhere near the scale of Bambu Lab, Creality, or Anycubic, and with fewer features (e.g. cloud, multiple filaments, 3D model integration, etc.).
Another option might be Prusa Research. While the company is based in Czechia, their acquisition of PrintedSolid allowed them to set up an assembly line in the USA. This might help them get around tariffs imposed on EU imports, which would presumably be lower than those on China.
But there’s another problem: Domestic manufacturers of 3D printers almost certainly obtain some of their parts from China and other overseas sources. These would also be taxed, which would raise the price of the machines somewhat, although not as much as a straight-up tariff on the machine.
And there’s another problem: Pricing.
Suppose the Chinese machine, after tariffs, rises to US$1000. If a comparable domestic device is sold for US$600, why wouldn’t the domestic manufacturer raise their price to, say, US$950? They could do that and still beat the tariffed price — just by a lower difference.
It’s quite likely that street prices would float upwards towards the tariff level.
Another effect that is often forgotten is that 3D printer pricing is a moving target. The price-performance ratio has been improving year after year, and that is going to continue. It may be that the machine previously sold at US$500 next year might be US$400, leading to a US$800 price with tariff. What happens as that price continues to drop? Does the tariff level have to increase to compensate?
Will tariffs truly generate local manufacturing? Perhaps eventually, but it could be many years before anything substantial occurs in desktop 3D printer manufacturing.
One development might be that Creality, Anycubic, Bambu Lab, or Elegoo may set up their own manufacturing operation in the US as Prusa Research has done. That would get around tariffs, but would also raise the cost to produce the machine, possibly resulting in about the same costs anyway.
Would tariffs actually do any good for desktop 3D printing? They may or may not; the situation is more complicated than it may appear. What I do know is that buyers will almost certainly be paying a heck of a lot more for their 3D printers in the future.
