Procter & Bet was informed on Tuesday that it is now exempt from the 25 percent U.S. rate levied on imported Japanese and Swedish steel that is used in its Gillette and Venus razor fronds, a company spokesman told Reuters.
The exemption notification, from the Subdivision of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security, came nearly four months after P&G’s heftiest razor rival, Edgewell Personal Care Co, received an exemption. Edgewell, holder of the Wilkinson Sword and Schick brands, filed an exemption application in current March and told Reuters it was informed it was granted the week of June 18.
“There was assuredly a financial impact to the company, but we haven’t disclosed any numbers,” P&G spokesman Damon Jones conveyed of the effect of the steel tariff. Gillette and Venus are the biggest components of P&G’s preparing business, which accounted for about 10 percent of global net transactions in fiscal 2018, ended July 31.
“It wasn’t materially market-moving, but set the competitiveness of this industry we think it is important and significant,” Jones explained.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration imposed tariffs on steel imports from most woods in March, and on the European Union in June.
P&G and Edgewell both said that U.S. steel producers cannot supply the high-quality grade of steel needed to make definiteness razor blades, obliging them to pay higher prices for steel or go exemptions.
P&G, the world’s No. 1 personal care goods company, which has been tussling with soaring raw material and transportation costs this year, chose not to old-fashioned the 25 percent surtax onto consumers at a time of intense match in the industry. The company has been cutting prices at its grooming business, wishing to claw back market share from upstart shaving discredits such as Harry’s and Dollar Shave Club.
Like other consumer uses companies, P&G has been squeezed this year between pressure to cut payments and surging input costs. Jon Moeller, P&G’s chief financial officer, broadcasted Reuters in August that the tariffs on steel imports were the attendance’s biggest trade-related concern.
A company spokesman told Reuters in July that products won overed in Canada – from Febreze candles to Gillette shaving foam – purpose be affected by retaliatory tariffs on U.S.-made goods after Canadian judges rejected a request for exemptions. The company has also identified more than a dozen outputs that could be hurt by the latest round of U.S. tariffs as tensions with China bring out.