After two years of madness during Covid, graphics card prices have seemed to normalize in recent months. This is due to several factors, the main ones being a drop in demand and an end to GPU mining of the main cryptocurrency . But the horizon is still very uncertain, especially due to the anti-import policy of the US administration. Until now, the sector benefited from a temporary exemption from import taxes, especially on PCBs manufactured in Chinese factories. This exemption allows the industry to escape a tax of 25%… Problem, the derogatory regime ends on January 1, 2023 and the entire graphics card market could be impacted.
Fears on the graphics card market but also on motherboards
The industry is obviously lobbying the USTR to extend the exceptions to the tax policy. But with only a few days left, the USTR has not yet announced its decision on the matter.
It is obvious that if this exemption was not renewed, it would add to the ongoing inflation on the prices of graphics cards but also motherboards. If many brands have been trying for several months to “get out” of China, the matter is far from being simple. Some have considered assembling partially finished PCBs with other components in other geographical locations… But the exemptions covering this sector include unfinished PCBs.
Under these conditions, many are realizing that the assembly of PCBs, an activity that is largely automated and robotized today, is mostly in the hands of China for reasons that have nothing to do with cost.
Finally, if the problem were to be confirmed, it is obvious that by extension, it would affect other sectors than motherboards and graphics cards…
