Gillette gets a break from the steel tariffs for her razors



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The shaving brand was exempted from the 25% tariff that the US government imposed on steel imports early in the year, its parent company, Procter & Gamble (PG) said on Tuesday.

The company said that since it could not find the right kind of steel for its razor blades in the United States, Gillette had imported it from a Swedish supplier for more than 20 years. Together, they have developed a "highly specialized steel" that is "the key to our success and the high quality products we manufacture," said P & G in its waiver application.

He warned that a failure in the application of tariffs could adversely affect Gillette's manufacturing operations in the United States and drive up consumer prices.

Edgewell Personal Care (EPC), the rival of P & G, owner of the brands Wilkinson Sword and Schick, received a similar waiver in June.

Edgewell did not respond to a request for comment late Tuesday outside normal office hours.

P & G, the largest shaving group in the world, fights against changing consumer habits (American men shave less often) and competition from online shaving clubs, cheaper and directly accessible to consumers, such as Dollar Shave Club and Harry's.

P & G's grooming business, which includes razors, blades and shaving products from Gillette, Braun and Venus, accounted for 10% of the company's $ 66.8 billion sales last year. The company's market share for men's razors and blades has fallen more than 13 points from 2012 to 2017, according to Euromonitor data.

The Trump administration added to its headaches in March by announcing tariff plans of 25% on steel imports and 10% on aluminum imports. The measures took effect on shipments coming from the European Union in June.

By mid-September, the Trump administration had approved more than 2,500 company applications to exclude products from steel tariffs, according to the Commerce Department.

In September, the government changed the process of seeking exemptions from steel and aluminum tariffs after companies complained about the cumbersome procedure and its focus on large firms. companies able to crush the demands of the smaller ones.

The new guidelines gave companies more time to react when others tried to block their waiver requests.

Nathaniel Meyersohn and Julia Horowitz contributed to this report.

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