The US subsidiary of South Korea’s LG Electronics Co on Wednesday warned retailers that it would raise prices of its washing machines following import duties imposed by US President Donald Trump’s administration this week.
It was the first concrete reaction to the trade measures announced this week that have angered the US’ trading partners.
“As a result of the trade situation, we will be initiating pricing actions,” LG Electronics USA executive vice president of home appliances Thomas Yoon said in a letter to retailers.
Photo: Bloomberg
He said the amount of the price increases would be detailed in separate letters to the stores.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the price hike would be about US$50 on certain washer-dryer combinations.
Trump on Tuesday put his “America First” doctrine into action by imposing duties of 20 to 50 percent on large washing machines manufactured in China, South Korea, Mexico and Vietnam, in addition to a 30 percent tariff on imported solar panels.
Seoul has said it plans to take the issue to the WTO, while Beijing expressed “strong dissatisfaction” with the move adopted to protect US manufacturers. However, LG assured its retailers that supplies of the appliances would not be disrupted.
“While this is disappointing news, let me assure you that we have planned for this possibility so we can minimize any disruption in supply of LG washers and dryers to you, our valued partners,” Yoon wrote.
The South Korean company recently completed construction of a washing machine factory in Clarksville, Tennessee, which it expects to start production in the fourth quarter.
Separately, after imposing tariffs opposed by much of the US solar industry, the Trump administration is offering a US$3 million prize to revive domestic solar manufacturing.
The US Department of Energy on Wednesday said that the American Made Solar Prize would help “reassert American leadership in the solar marketplace.”
Earlier this week, Trump decided to impose tariffs of up to 30 percent on most imported solar cells used in solar panels.
A federal trade panel recommended the tariffs, which had been sought by two US manufacturers.
Most of the US solar industry revolves around installing solar systems for homeowners and utilities, and those companies have largely opposed the tariffs.
They have said that tariffs would raise their costs and make photovoltaic installations less price-competitive with other energy sources.
Additional reporting by AP
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
FORESEEABLE CONSEQUENCES: New technology always comes with new innovations by the iniquitous in exploiting users for financial gain or more nefarious ends Artificial intelligence (AI) “agents” say they can save users time and energy by automating tasks, but the growing power of systems such as OpenClaw is putting cybersecurity experts on edge. Powered by a wave of hype, OpenClaw today says it has more than three million users worldwide. The system allows users to create so-called agents, tools based on a large language model (LLM) such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic PBC’s Claude, that can carry out online tasks. “We’ve moved from an AI you could talk with via a chatbot to an agentic AI, which can take action... the threat and the risks are
RSS