Shifting Production Outside China Would Cost Sonos $15M, Take 2 Years, It Says
Sonos can’t move production outside China “in any reasonable or efficient manner” of the wireless mesh network speakers for which it’s seeking an exclusion from the List 4A Section 301 tariffs, posted the vendor Wednesday in the Office of the…
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U.S. Trade Representative public docket. Sonos estimates it would cost more than $15 million and take about two years to find alternative sourcing in a third country to “ensure that quality and sourcing standards are met,” it said. There's “no other single market in the world” besides China “where all of the components and expertise required to produce our wireless home audio systems can be obtained at the scale necessary to support consumer demand for our products,” said Sonos. “Fragmenting our supply chain across several countries is inefficient and prevents achieving economies of scale. Shifting production out of China would require us to recreate an entirely new supply chain and global concentration in the electronics sector means that we would still need to import many of our components from China.” Finding “substitute components” or new sources of product assembly “is a complex process that takes time and a significant investment,” it said. Sonos imports the speakers under the 8517.62.00.90 heading covering a broad swatch of consumer tech products, including smart speakers, Bluetooth headphones, fitness trackers and smartwatches.