Trump tariffs affecting Asus product availability?

[jegesq]

Anyone purchase an Asus WiFi Router lately? Very hard to find product anywhere except online. For example, all of the local Frys stores in Southern California now only sell one, two, maybe three models at most (all sell the Blue Cave). In the entire LA region, only two models continue to be stocked, and the prices seem to be higher than they were during the summer months. Netgear, on the other hand, is everywhere. I thought Asus was a Taiwanese company, not mainland China. So what's up with the seeming supply shortage?

 

[RMerlin]

So what's up with the seeming supply shortage?

Black Friday happened, is what I suspect was the main issue.

Tariffs would have an impact on price, not availability, so I don't think it's related.

 

[sfx2000]

I thought Asus was a Taiwanese company, not mainland China.

The tariffs will impact country of origin (e.g. where it's made), not the country where the company is based in.

 

[jegesq]

The tariffs will impact country of origin (e.g. where it's made), not the country where the company is based in.

Um, if we (USA) impose a tariff on a product built elsewhere and imported into the U.S., that's a tax on imports. That can certainly have an impact on not just the country where the product is made (it restricts the market for the imported good because the price is higher to the consumer, and thus discourages the manufacturer from importing into the U.S., thus causing a drop in U.S. supply of the imported product), but it also affects the overall supply-side market here in the U.S. (which is what a tariff is designed to accomplish, i.e., it favors the domestic producer by making the domestic producer's price more competitive (and lower) than the import. Of course, that's not always the way things work out though with tariffs: Witness the U.S. auto industry, in which domestic steel prices have risen dramatically (contrary to what one would have imagined with the tariffs on imported steel that the Trump admin imposed), which has directly affected profitability of domestic car producers (such as GM), who in partial response are now laying off more than 15,000+ workers both domestically and in Canada and Mexico.

Sorry, didn't really mean to start an economic/political discussion here. Was just asking about supply chain for Asus networking products since it seems there's almost no product being put into the pipeline for U.S. resale other than a few select models. RMerlin may be right though, and this may be just the after-effects of a large sell-off of existing inventory due to Black Friday. I'm not entirely sold on that yet though since we're now almost two weeks after Thanksgiving and well into the Christmas buying season, and I still don't see any of the usual electronics retailers fully stocked up with Asus products for this buying season. So is something else going on with Arris that might be affecting the short supply of product? Just asking...