By now everyone has heard about Donald Trumps new tariffs against steel and now a whole range of goods worth over $100 Billion against China. This is a trade conflict which has been brewing for some time now. Indeed Donald Trump was very vocal about his intention to fight China in trade and their perceived protection of their own industries during the election. Now he has spoken with a whole range of tariffs and indeed China has reciprocated with its own. Lately though President Xi has been trying to set a conciliatory tone in order to calm the situation.
Whilst the tariffs are only on Chinese goods entering the United States of America they are going to have a profound effect of global trade and pricing. China is a large purchaser of commodities from a range of countries including Australia, Brazil etc. Any disruption to their supply chain can have a domino effect. So effect on China’s demand for commodities may exert downward pressure on their prices. Similarly a cut in their own production might push prices higher for finished goods.
How this will effect lanyards remains to be seen. Lanyards are manufactured from raw materials which they purchase on the international market. Therefore any movement in those raw material pricing can have an effect on lanyard pricing. On the flip side if Chinese loses access to the US lanyard market then there may be excess supply of lanyards which could push prices lower for the rest of the world. So as you can see the effect of President Donald Trump’s new protectionist policies have on global lanyard pricing is a real concern to the promotional products industry.
There are some lanyards which are manufactured in Australia and other countries which will largely remain unaffected. Indeed most low cost products are manufactured in China or other countries in Asian. But if there is a disruption to the markets then one might expect a broader effect on the pricing of such products. What effect they will have we will have to wait and see.