Monitor makers are allegedly stockpiling display panels in response to tariffs imposed on China by the Trump administration. DigiTimes Asia reports that screen stockpiling volume is expected to reach 3 million units, with monitor prices allegedly increasing by 5% due to tariffs.
The implication of the new tariffs could cause a chain reaction in the monitor panel industry, on top of just stockpiling. Heavy competition in the industry is expected to choke second-tier monitor brands (think those without a long history in or close ties to the display business), hampering their negotiating power, and forcing these lower-tier brands to pay higher prices to ensure they get enough product capacity for their products.
"First-tier" brands, by comparison, will be less affected, having more room to compensate for the new tariffs with their reportedly better capacity and selection capabilities.
Panel demand is reportedly increasing progressively in the first quarter of 2025, as the biggest players in the display market such as Dell, HP, and Samsung build their inventory to combat tariff pricing. This initial wave in demand seemingly began in late 2024, and has led to slight price increases for some monitor panels already.
Displays are far from the only part of the tech industry feeling the impact. ASRock is planning to move production outside of China due to the same Trump-imposed tariffs. And it doesn't seem to be planning a move to the U.S., but rather Vietnam and Taiwan, countries where tariffs have yet to be applied.
Even though Tariffs have not yet been applied to those nations, Trump has threatened Taiwan with up to 100% tariffs on semiconductor chips. The U.S. president's stated aim is to bring back semiconductor manufacturing jobs to the U.S., many of which have shifted to Taiwan.
Newegg also blamed tariffs (before deleting its Tweets) for the frustrating limited availability and price issues plaguing the new RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 graphics cards. They company's social media pointed to tariffs in addition to scalpers as being responsible for hiking prices by 18% on Nvidia's flagship GPUs. MediaTek is also conducting impact simulations to see how U.S. tariffs might impact its business operations.
