European flexo press manufacturers, such as Bobst, Durst, Heidelberg-owned Gallus, Nilpeter, Omet and MPS, could be facing hefty import tariffs on kit imported to the US, after sole local manufacturer, Mark Andy, has entered a submission requesting that more substantial levies be applied to imported equipment.
Mark Andy has requested that levies be applied to equipment imported to the US from the likes of Bobst, Durst, Heidelberg-owned Gallus, Nilpeter, Omet and MPS.
Citing ‘unfair competition’, Mark Andy’s submission stated: “Mark Andy has long been an innovator in the printing industry, and a leading example of American innovation. However, its ability to continue to innovate has been threatened due to unfairly priced foreign competition. These threats not only threaten Mark Andy, but the entire domestic industry; by extension, threatening American innovation and the national security of the United States.”
The submission’s claims appear to have been legitimised on the coat-tails of President Trump’s new MAGA tariff regime, formally triggered by his invocation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. A baseline 10% tariff was first applied to nearly all imports back in April 2025, with steady escalation in many cases since then, as well as higher, individualized rates on countries with the largest trade deficits with the United States.
In June, President Trump signed a proclamation to increase the steel and aluminum tariff rate on certain imports from 25% to 50%. This Section 232 steel and aluminum tariff ledger is the focus of Mark Andy’s submission, given its inclusion of imported flexo machinery, encompassing web flexographic presses and web hybrid flexo and digital devices.
With the value of flexo printing machinery entering the US being between USD$164m and USD$210m a year from 2022-2024, Mark Andy’s submission claims that it is experiencing ‘unfair competition from foreign exporters’.
Whilst it will likely be months before the true impact this single submission might have on the value of imported flexo printing machinery sales - a USD$164-210m annual market according to Mark Andy’s submission - it is the capacity for local manufacturers to seemingly be able to dictate, or at least heavily influence, price-points for equipment, that sets a worrying precedent.
The argument contra to this is that companies like Mark Andy – with 8 decades of history as the sole domestic manufacturer of flexo printing presses – very much underpin a tariff regime that has been framed as ‘a bold reassertion of U.S. economic sovereignty’.
