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Fujifilm announced a forthcoming series of price increases, this one hot on the heels of the last one, which was only a few weeks ago. The tariff situation is complicated, and probably more than any of us care to imagine. Retailers have to account for materials such as steel and aluminum, and the country of origin for all materials. Then on top of that, you have the uncertainty of what the tariff may be in 30 days or even after lunch.
Fujifilm didn't specify what products will be impacted, though it has told DPReview that it will affect most of its lineup except the recently released X half and X-E5, which will keep their current prices, for at least now.
Fujifilm put out this short and sweet press statement.
The global marketplace continues to present business challenges, driven by the volatile market conditions facing manufacturers, retailers, and consumers alike. With these changes and the instability of the marketplace, we have made the business decision to further adjust prices to accommodate for these global changes. As we navigate the current market situation, Fujifilm is doing all we can to work with our retailers and consumers to weather this storm together. We appreciate your continued support.
All of this costs, well, money – and Fujifilm, unlike a Canon or Sony, probably doesn't have the deep pockets to cover the wildly varying scenarios that can occur on a whim.
What does this mean for Canon?
I would consider this a canary in a coal mine event. Canon's revenue from imaging is around 20 times that of Fujifilm, so that most likely gives Canon a little more wiggle room to navigate the situation, but sooner or later, even Canon is going to be forced down the same path.
Canon hasn't said anything about future tariffs, but it stands to reason that Canon won't eat the difference and will certainly pass it on to the customers. Canon has stated in its last financial Q&A session that they would consider the response on a product-by-product basis.
From August 1, if we apply the latest tariff rates, such as 15% on Japan and 20% on Vietnam, based on our current supply chain assumption, the impact of increased costs would roughly be between 15 and 16 billion yen at most. We are currently considering how to respond to this cost increase, including passing this on through price increases. Rather than applying price increases evenly, we will consider this on an individual product basis, taking into account product competitiveness.
About the only thing we can predict with any certainty is that this isn't the last article discussing tariffs.
