The latest news from China is that the Corona virus continues to affect production of Printer Cartridges and all other products and is now having an impact on prices. Most factories in China are still not in full swing and remain under staffed.
Delays of up to 8 weeks to process orders are the normal scenario at this time. With the drop in the value of the Australian dollar this is also impacting on Australian businesses. Here is a copy of an email I received today from one of our Chinese Printer Cartridge suppliers ( names withheld ):
Dear Customers,
We’re delighted to share, %^&$@#, as the High-tech enterprise, with the strong support from government, has recovered the production capacity to almost 1 million per month. And more production capacity will be released on next month.
However, there is a fact that we can’t ignore is whole China’s industrial production capacity is strongly affected by COVID-19, all factories still facing huge lack of workers.
Which causes following problems happen and increased our production cost rapidly:
- Box cost increased 5%-10%
- Toner cartridge powder/wiper blades/MR/PCR increased 10%-20%
- Hot models’ chip cost increased
- Plastic shell’s cost increased
- Worker’s cost is 2.5-3 times higher than last year (over-time work, recruit temporary workers etc.)
- Disinfection in workshop many times per day
- 2 masks per worker per day (without masks and disinfection the government not allow factory run)
Due to above, we estimate Chinese factory’s FOB quotation probably increase 3%-10% very soon.
So here we’d like to remind you pay attention to raise your sales prices recently for keeping your profit.
To be more supportive, the order’s you confirmed we won’t change your prices. Just the new order we have to calculate the prices according to real and newest cost, it is possible that some models’ prices may be raised, but we will try our best to keep before prices or minimize the price increases.
Meantime, we suggest you prepare your order plans as quick as you can, because the raw materials supplying too tension, many materials need to reservation in advance. Earlier arrangement can help you catch a better delivery time and avoid too much price fluctuations.
Finally, thank you for being with us during this difficult time!
Best regards,
#$&@#& $#*&$
Regional Sales Manager
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