Supply Chain Research

Fanuc has cut its net income forecast by 1.99% for the current fiscal year in part due to “continuing trade friction”. That likely reflects a mixture of a broader investment slowdown including the company’s industrial robots rather than the specifics of tariffs. Fanuc’s U.S.-bound seaborne shipments of industrial robots fell 26.0% on a year earlier in the third quarter. By contrast total U.S. imports of industrial robots in the three months to Aug. 31 rose by 6.48%. U.S. tariffs against Chinese exports are more about deterring future growth than limiting current supplies given shipments ...