Monday, August 5th 2019
Cryorig Not Dead, But the US-China Trade-War Hurt It
There have been spectacular rumors flying around on Reddit that PC cooling components major Cryorig has shut down, with telltale signs being their telephone-support number going dead, their Newegg store being out-of-stock for months, and their Twitter account falling silent. We've reviewed close to a dozen Cryorig products, and our last review was dated October 2018. We reached out to Cryorig and one of their representatives was kind enough to respond to us with an update on what has happened at the company. Cryorig is impacted by the U.S.-China trade-war, as the high import tariffs affected the viability of its products. The company would earlier directly access the U.S. market through exclusive stores on Amazon and Newegg.
The company continues to have active market-presence elsewhere, including Asia and Europe. Cryorig clarified in unequivocal terms that it has not, and will not, exit the U.S. market. The company stated that it is merely waiting for respite from the crippling import tariff. In the meantime, it has sought out a new U.S.-based distributor who will import Cryorig products, and resell them. This distributor will also take over other aspects of the U.S. business, including aftersales support, RMA, etc.
This distributor is Outlet PC, a U.S.-based retailer that sells a broad selection of discounted PC hardware. The transition from Cryorig's current U.S. distributor to Outlet PC will take place by early-August. Cryorig relies heavily on the U.S. market and the trade-war has hurt it. "We are going to cooperate with Outlet PC and see how we can deal with the tax rate, but also hope the tax rate could be lowered," the Cryorig representative said, referring to the increased import tariffs. "Hoping daily for a trade deal to get worked out between the USA and China, but business must go on," they added. "Once a deal is in place, we should see relief and hopefully a market that will pick up quickly," they hoped. The company's last trade-show outing was Computex 2018, and it skipped this year's show. Based on our communications it seems serious about restoring its U.S. market presence so it could come back with newer products. We are closely tracking this story, and will update you by early-August on Cryorig as Outlet PC takes over its U.S. operations.
The company continues to have active market-presence elsewhere, including Asia and Europe. Cryorig clarified in unequivocal terms that it has not, and will not, exit the U.S. market. The company stated that it is merely waiting for respite from the crippling import tariff. In the meantime, it has sought out a new U.S.-based distributor who will import Cryorig products, and resell them. This distributor will also take over other aspects of the U.S. business, including aftersales support, RMA, etc.
31 Comments on Cryorig Not Dead, But the US-China Trade-War Hurt It
Their CRYORIG CPU COOLER R1 ULTIMATE goes for 92€, while the NOCTUA NH-D15S goes for 83€ (those prices are with VAT), and the latter one is better in my books (better mount, fan and clearance). It shouldn't be like that, thus no wonders. Don't blame only the US tariffs.
btw r1 ultimate is about 10% cheaper than d15s here.
If we look at German Amazon, we can spot the same tendency as I have..
you guys in Europe are getting burnt on pricing 104.90 euros ($169.41NZD) is way more than I paid here in Gougeland for my R1 Universal $136.00NZD
What I am implying... Yes POTUS is a concern... but I am saying it is only the half truth. They are writing off poor buisness practice and blaming the US tariffs as a main cause. And actually all their competitiors at certain degree suffer from the same issues, yet they doesn't make statements like that. That's competion for you. We can blame certain person, that's easy for sure... let's make an annoucment and cry together.
They remind me of Prolimatech actually... same fate.
Same thing is going to be happening to board games, consoles, merchandise, etc. What happened to free markets?
With Tariffs it likely ate into that margin to the point they were taking a loss. From what I can see its basically a business plan that relied on the old trade deals / status quo. Now that everything has gone to shit said business plan doesn't work. Other vendors are getting hit too but their business plan / distribution setup allows them to hold out. So Cryorig has to adapt and it appears they are attempting to do so. Time will tell if it works.
They are now up at $59.99
Example: MSI’s NVIDIA RTX Lineup New Pricing After Trump Tariff
Here is one of the lists we received with post-tariff pricing going live very soon (if not already):
- RTX 2080 Ti Gaming X Trio: $1231 to $1310
- RTX 2080 Ti DUKE 11G OC: $1212 to $1290
- RTX 2080 Ti VENTUS 11G OC: $1203 to $1280
- RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio: $849 to $900
- RTX 2080 DUKE 8G OC: $840 to $890
- RTX 2080 VENTUS 8G OC: $830 to $880
Not going to argue the point regarding Cryorig ... but the US has only themselves to blame for the trade situation with China. Had US companies been willing to pay a fair / living wage all the production facilities wouldn't be in China. The tariffs are an ill advised policy that is severely hurting US companies all by themselves. Let's compare.Companies like Cyberpower build PCs here using US labor. Where possible, they can avoid the tariffs but as most components are made only in China, most of the products costs are effected by the US Tariff. For arguments sake, let's call the cost of components $1200 with 3/4 of that sourced from China and incurring a $225 tariff. Let's call Cyberpower's labor cost $300 using living wage US labor.
Now companies like Dell, HP, and all the boxes found in big box stores ... the get put on the shelves in the very same boxes that they left China. Because they are fully assembled in Chine they are exempt from the Trump tariffs. So to sell the same PC with the exact same componentry ... they have a $225 price advantage from the get go. They are using cheap Chine based labor so costs are $100 per unit, another $200 advantage.
So how the hell is any of this going to change anything other than companies like Cyberpower will go out of business ? Stop drinking the Kool-Aid ... nothing is going to change for better in the PC market, it's just shifting production from US to China and destroying the US based PC industry.
Build a PC in America, pay the tariffs.
Build a PC in China ... no tariffs.
And all the while, half the folks are walking around believing that China's somehow going to buckle when all that's happening is their US competition is in tatters;
www.pcmag.com/news/369917/trump-10-percent-tariffs-on-chinese-imports-start-in-septem
"Fully assembled consumer electronics have so far been spared from Trump's existing tariffs on Chinese imports. However, the vendors behind certain computer components such as motherboards, graphics cards, and PC cases, have not been so lucky. Last year, the US began tariffing them at 10 percent before raising the rate to 25 percent in May. "
www.publictechnews.com/heres-how-trumps-tariffs-hike-may-affect-prices-for-pc-parts-pcmag/
"The tariff list covers a lot of computer parts, including motherboards, graphics cards, CPU coolers and even desktop cases. TVs, digital cameras and internet modems have also been ensnared as well. However, smartphones and fully assembled PCs have been spared. "
www.theverge.com/2018/9/18/17873440/trump-tariff-china-tech-apple-trade-war
"US companies assembling computers from imported parts face the same problem. Dell, which runs assembly plants in Massachusetts and North Carolina said the tariffss “could result in serious damage to Dell and its employees,” with the new costs either raising the price of products or coming out of the company’s bottom line. Competitors that keep their assembly in China would be unaffected. "
The economic damage will be particularly severe for smaller companies. CyberPowerPC, a small LA company specializing in high-end custom computers, pleaded its case to the USTR earlier this month. “These tariffs will increase the cost of all of our products and we will no longer be able to stay competitive,” the company’s CEO wrote. “In our company’s 20-year history, the proposed Section 301 Tariff Action is the greatest threat to our company’s survivability to ever arise.”
John Samborski, CEO of an Illinois-based PC manufacturer focused on education and government contracts, put the tariffs in even harsher terms, saying simply: “I don’t recall the President campaigning on ‘Making China Great Again.’”
This is not the place to discuss tariffs on anything else but PC products but it's clear that all this will do is shift PC assembly / production ***out of the United States to China*** or other 3rd world countries. Wouldn't the smarter thing to do be to place the 25% tariff on the fully assembled PCs and leave the componentry alone ? Would that shift production quickly to the IUS as all one needs is an empty warehouse ? Many components are now made ony in China so it's not as if US companies have alternative sources for those ... FAb plants take 4-5 years to get up and running.
A logical approach would be to start with the 25% on fully assembled PCs and then phase in the tariffs on componentry over 5 years... providing an exemption to companies that start building fab plants.
The overall economy is doing very well, at least in the US. That is what I mean by little impact. My 401k has done well the past couple of years. A few years ago the economy was not strong enough to challenge China as entire industries would have been at risk of collapse.
I will probably piss people off by saying this, but this problem is bigger a lot bigger than GPU prices and companies that make CPU cooling solutions. We are talking about currency manipulation, patent infringement, and a slew of other corrupt trade practices.
People seem short sited this day and age or listen to cnn/msm...
Eitherway I noticed in testing that they are slipping down in performance. So I will go to Scythe/Thermalright on a future upgrade.
As for general tariffs stuff, there's a thread for talking about that here:
www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/tariffs-and-economy.249264/