Graphics card manufacturing is moving from China due to tariffs – price increases may follow

In 2016, Donald Trump won the US presidential election, where he went to the polls on lower taxes and reduced trade deficits against China. Against this background, a number of measures have been implemented, including the imposition of customs duties on certain goods imported from China.

As the scope of customs duties increases, more goods are affected, and now graphics cards have ended up on the radar. In concrete terms, this means that a fee of ten percent will be imposed on graphics cards produced in China and then exported to the United States, which will drive up the price for end customers in the country. It is worth mentioning that this only applies to loose graphics cards, and not ready-made computers.

Sources at Techspot say, however, that third-party manufacturers are looking more closely at the possibilities of avoiding customs duties, by moving production from China to countries such as Mexico and Taiwan, which are not covered by the duties. However, a large part of the graphics circuits are still manufactured in China, but AMD and Nvidia do not have their own factories connected to the country.

The price increases may well primarily affect American consumers, but it also depends on how manufacturers choose to spread the cost of customs duties. Investment bank Merryll Lynch estimates that graphics card prices may rise by five to ten percent in the short term.