September 03, 2019
To our Valued Kyocera Dealer Partners,
We wish to extend our appreciation for your daily support and promotion of the Kyocera and Copystar products. Through your commitment and loyalty, Kyocera continues to increase market share and experience positive sales growth across our product segments.
As many of you are aware, the U.S. Government recently announced that it will apply a 15% tariff on a broad list of goods manufactured in China effective September 1, 2019. These tariffs, along with the ones previously enacted in July of 2018, effectively cover all our products manufactured in China. Specifically, the tariffs imposed in 2018 applied mainly to our maintenance kits. The new tariffs apply to our toner, MFPs, printers and accessories. To date, we have done our best to absorb the additional costs, but the cumulative nature of these new tariffs will affect our cost of goods in the future.
Based on our inventory levels, we have enough inventory in our U.S. warehouses to fulfill all anticipated orders in the month of September. However, we do not have enough inventory to cover your orders for the month of October and onward. This means, that all inventory we import from China from and after September will be subject to the tariffs.
Accordingly, although we will try to absorb as much of these new costs as we can, we must continue to evaluate the situation to determine if additional action is necessary, including the possibility of a price increase on our products. As always, we will continue to try to maintain competitive prices and to bring you the same quality products and services. We appreciate your understanding during these ever-changing times and will continue to keep you advised.
Sincerely,
Ed Bialecki
Senior Vice President, Sales
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