Key takeaways
- Piece price is not landed cost. Nine line items decide the real number; most quotes show four.
- The 2026 tariff stack is not the 2025 tariff stack. The US Supreme Court struck down the IEEPA tariffs on 20 February 2026. Section 122's 10% global tariff expired 24 July 2026 and was replaced by new Section 301 tariffs. Any comparison written before mid-2026 is modelling a structure that no longer exists.
- China's trade-weighted effective tariff rate was 22.8% in July 2026 — the highest of any major US trading partner, and well below the 40–50% figures still circulating online (Penn Wharton Budget Model, September 2026).
- For a mid-volume, US-bound commodity-resin part, the duty rate is the single decisive variable. Below roughly 20% effective duty, China's piece-price advantage wins. Above it, Mexico does.
- China's structural advantage has not moved: tooling. Single-cavity prototype molds run 1,000–3,000inChinaagainst1,000–3,000inChinaagainst8,000–15,000+ at European toolmakers (Haizol, May 2026). On low-volume and revision-heavy programmes, that delta still decides the programme.
- The most under-used play is a hybrid: tool in China, produce regionally.
1. Why piece price is lying to you
Ask five suppliers for a quote and you will get five piece prices. That number describes the press, the resin, and the labour — and nothing else. It is roughly half of what your CFO will eventually book.
Landed cost is the cost of one usable part sitting in your warehouse. In injection molding it has nine components:
