It's Not a Price Increase, It's Just a Trump Tariff Surcharge

(Bloomberg) -- From Royal Philips NV to Lennox International Inc., companies are raising prices to make up for the extra cost of paying for tariffs to import materials from China to the U.S. But one company has hit on another strategy.

Lincoln Electric Holdings Inc., the Cleveland-based maker of welding equipment and supplies, is applying a surcharge to products affected by the levies, giving customers a degree of transparency into how much the tariffs are adding to their costs. That’s a better way to handle the matter in case the tariffs end, executives said on a conference call Monday.

“There is still a fair amount of uncertainty regarding the length of duration and extent of surcharge of the tariffs,” Christopher Mapes, chief executive officer, said on the call. “Treating the tariffs as a surcharge was a more appropriate pricing mechanism than traditional inflationary cost increases.”

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