Tariffs force U.S. bicycle company to halt imports from China

The Kamler family, owner of Fairfield, New Jersey-based Kent International, has been in the bicycle business for four generations. 

“When I joined the company in 1972, we had six employees, including both my parents and myself,” former Kent International CEO Arnold Kamler told CBS News. “And as of a few months ago we had over 200 employees.” 

Arnold took over Kent International from his father. Now his son, Scott Kamler, is CEO. They sell about two million bikes per year in the U.S. and they’re one of Walmart’s biggest suppliers. But President Trump’s plan for tariffs is throwing a wrench into their American dream. 

About 90% of Kent bikes are imported from China. The rest are assembled in the U.S. at their factory in South Carolina with parts from Asia. Kent had been paying 25% tariffs on bikes and bike parts coming from China since the first Trump administration. But under the tariffs implemented by Mr. Trump last month, a recent shipment that was delayed and arrived during the new tariff period forced the company to pay a combined 181.47% in import duties and tariffs.

During the one-month period from March 20 to April 20, Kent Bikes paid $3.1 million in tariffs alone. 

Under the new tariffs, a bicycle wheel imported from China that would have previously cost between $10 and $12 increased to about $30, according to Arnold.  

He says that makes him feel “really bad” and “angry.”

“China is not paying these tariffs,” Arnold said. “We have an account with U.S. customs where they automatically deduct once a month, the import duty, from our account. And so, it’s not only import duty, but these tariffs are deducted.” 

The company cancelled its new orders from China for April, and it doesn’t have any plans to place new orders in May. 

Even if tariffs against China are reduced by the Trump administration, there are dozens of other countries facing new tariffs. So trying to find other foreign vendors seems futile.

“We had already shifted some of our business, almost half our business, to several of the countries on that list,” Kamler said. “And we’re getting out of China and now we’re still getting slammed. It’s just completely unfair.”

Arnold indicates that fully manufacturing and assembling their bikes in the U.S. is not financially tenable from a cost-perspective.

“I can’t even calculate that high,” Kamler said about what he thinks a bike would cost to produce here. “I’ll just tell you one quick story. There was a company that came to us a couple years ago. They wanted to make handlebars for us. Now we used to make our own handlebar for about a dollar-and- a-half, and we saved some money by buying it from Asia. And this company took three months to give me the quotation for a simple BMX handlebar. And the price came back at $12. I said, ‘$12? It’s about 80 cents of steel. How could you be?’ ‘Well, there’s a lot of work.’ And I said, ‘OK, thank you, you can lose my number.’ So, you can take that (as) kind of (an) example…I mean, a $100-bicycle here would be a $1,000 if all the parts were made here right now.”