Ansell to fully offset tariffs with higher pricing

One of the ASX200's worst affected companies from US tariff announcements, personal protective equipment (PPE) manufacturer Ansell (ASX: ANN), has confirmed price increases to offset impacts of the new trade measures that will hit its key manufacturing bases of Malaysia and Sri Lanka with tariffs of 24 per cent and 44 per cent respectively.

The group emphasises that the "vast majority" of manufacturing in its industry now takes place in Asian countries subject to US tariffs, and describes US industry manufacturing capacity for comparable hand and body protection products as "negligible".

Ansell shares fell 13.6 per cent yesterday as US-oriented companies with tariff exposure saw investors head for the exits, with its market capitalisation down $500 million at one point.

In today's announcement, the Melbourne-headquartered group reported that 43 per cent of its revenue was generated in the US.

"The majority of products sold in the US are sourced from Ansell manufacturing facilities or third-party suppliers in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam and China," the company stated.

"No country supplies more than 30 per cent of our imports into the US, with our largest exposures being to Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

"Ansell plans to fully offset the tariff increases through pricing, and we have had conversations with customers to this effect including in the past 24 hours."

As Ansell expects the timing of tariff increases and pricing adjustments to be broadly similar, it is maintaining a guidance range for FY25 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of US$1.18-US$1.28.

"Longer term, Ansell retains the flexibility to respond to changes in the relative attractiveness of traditional PPE manufacturing locations through 14 owned manufacturing plants in 9 countries and our extensive partner network," the company said.

Ansell shares have rebounded 4.23 per cent to $30.58 at the time of writing - a level still short of $34.29 before the tariff announcement.

The All Ordinaries are down another 1.37 per cent after the NASDAQ fell by almost 6 per cent overnight. On the ASX, big falls have been seen this morning for Generation Development Group (ASX: GDG) at 10.35 per cent, data centre group NEXTDC (ASX: NXT) by 8.26 per cent, and MA Financial Group (ASX: MAF) at 7.56 per cent.

Netwealth (ASX: NWL) shares have fallen further too, taking its level down by 13.6 per cent since US President Donald Trump's announcement of universal tariffs.

By sector, ASX-listed energy shares are down 5.56 per cent today and IT shares have fallen a further 4.61 per cent, mainly due to NEXTDC's fall, whereas yesterday a drop in Wisetech (ASX: WST) shares had pulled down the sector's index.

Wisetech, whose software is deeply integrated into logistics chains and therefore global trade, has seen its shares fall by 6.7 per cent since Wednesday.