DHL Express Malaysia Announces Average 4.9 Percent Price Increase

DHL Express Malaysia today has announced a price increase by an average rate of 4.9%, while surcharge for overweight pieces and non-stackable pallets will be adjusted to RM410 per piece and RM840 per pallet. These adjustments are slated to be made effective by January 2022.

According to the company‘s official statement, the change is part of its annual price adjustments, which takes into account inflation and currency dynamics. It added that this also includes administrative costs related to regulatory and security measures that are regularly updated by national and international authorities in over 220 countries and territories that DHL Express serves.

“The annual price adjustment enables us to further develop our infrastructure while allowing us to apply state-of-the-art technologies and individual delivery processes to ensure best-in-class customer solutions,” said DHL Express Malaysia & Brunei Country Manager Julian Neo. “In response to the increased demand for logistics expertise due to rising item volumes in the e-commerce market, we have invested heavily in the renewal of our aircraft fleet as well as our global hub and gateway network.”

According to a comment to Bernama, Neo detailed that the company will use this opportunity to upgrade its fleet with the latest aircraft and vehicles, as well as expand its hubs and gateways. This would enable it to increase its overall capacity, as demands for the fastest possible cross-border shipping continues to grow.

Leica To Increase Prices Across All Product Lines Starting April 2021

Leica has announced that it will be increasing the prices across all of its product line starting on 1 April 2021. According to a press release provided to website Red Dot Forum, the camera maker says that the new prices will vary by product, but will generally reflect on an average of 2% to 5% increase.

“Over the past year, the relationship between the US Dollar and Euro has suffered and we have absorbed these costs,” Leica wrote. “However, as this continues, we need to adjust our pricing in order to ensure pricing integrity across all Leica subsidiaries and to continue delivering the highest quality of products.”

According to the product price list provided by the company via Red Dot Forum, a majority of Leica lenses will be seeing an increase of US$100 to US$200 – with the exception of higher-end models such as the Summilux-M 90mm f/1.5 ASPH, which is listed to have an increase of US$700. The same can be said for the brand’s camera collection as well, with the likes of the Q and S series to see a price hike as low as US$100 and as high as US$1,000. Although Leica says the upcoming price hike will see a 5% increase at most, the list actually reveals jumps reaching up to 9% – albeit only affecting a small number of its products.

The camera maker noted that not all of its products will see a price increase next month. Recent releases such as the APO-Summicron-M 35 f/2.0 ASPH, Leica D-Lux 7 Street Kit, Q2 Daniel Craig x Greg Williams, and the APO Summicron-SL 28mm f/2.0 ASPH will be exempted from this.

The upcoming price adjustment is slated to apply across all markets simultaneously on 1 April. For a full list of products and their new prices, please refer to the Red Dot Forum link provided below. Before you ask, Leica Malaysia has confirmed with us that the price changes will be reflected on all of the brand’s products sold in the local market as well. However, it noted that the updated price list has not been made available just yet.

AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series Graphics Card See Price Increase Due To China Tariff

It’s bad enough that many consumers are unable to purchase an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series or AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics card due to strangled supplies. Now and in the case of the latter brand, in what can only be described as adding insult to injury, US tariffs levied against China are now coming into effect, forcing stores in the country to raise their prices.

To recap, back in 2018, outgoing US President Donald Trump signed into effect tariffs that would add an additional 10% value of goods, on top of a number of exports that came into China. Included in that export list was, of course, electronic goods. With the signing of the second tariff, the aim was to tax US$300 billion (~RM1.25 trillion) worth of Chinese goods being brought into the US. For the record, that tariff was delayed until December 2019, and many held out hope that it would be delayed further, but that never happened.

Now, with the tariffs in full effect, physical and online retailers in the US have had no choices but to hike up the prices of AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 series anywhere between 7.5% and 25%, which is a lot. Specifically, the US retail store, Microcenter, was selling the Radeon RX 6800 and 6800XT at US$839 (~RM3369) and US$899 (~RM3639), respectively. That’s way higher than the card’s original MSRP, which were respectively listed at US$579 (~RM2343) and US$649 (~RM2627).

At this stage, it’s almost a certainty that the tariffs and price hikes will spillover to the GPU supplies around the world, and our country will definitely not be spared. Having said that, there is the possibility that the incoming US President Joe Biden could undo some of these tariffs and that in turn could lead to a reduction in prices for both the components needed and the final product that comes from the assembling of said components.