HAAS import

[jimbojones1000]

Hello,

Ive a question about HAAS pricing and buying, im in the UK and as usual were being reamed by product pricing, an example would be the haas minimill, in the US it cost 31K in the UK it costs 47K(both in dollars), thats 150% of the US price!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Import duty is 2.2% leaving me wondering where the other 47.8% goes?

I wondered if there are any companies which offer to buy and ship US machines to the UK? even with 2Kish shipping the savings on a new VMC are massive.

Or can you buy haas off the shelf, im in the US for work next month, could i order a machine to pick up and then take it to a freight company and have it shipped back?

thanks for any advice

[Geof]

Is your $47k inclusive of VAT?

You may be missing some extra costs between the US and the UK. It may be possible to ship a machine from the east coast of the US for $2000 but don't forget it is going to cost something to get the machine to the eastcoast in the first place. Also I think the crating is more complex for export machines, machines for delivery in North America are just palletized and wrapped in plastic not fully crated.

I think if you did get firm figures on buying a machine in the US and having it shipped you might find your landed cost in the UK plus local delivery will come out a lot closer to $47k than $31k.

Not that I don't have sympathy for you. I have visited the UK frequently for business and pleasure and have seen how prices of many things are much higher over there.

[sadaf1230]

I'm new to CAM software for turning, and I'll have some projects to do on a TL-1, so far Mastercam x3 has been difficult to use and I can never seem to get everything on the right plane.

As far as importing Inventor part files, or IGES files, what do you guys use?


I'm turning L-series backplates and similar parts


Also, I have been wondering, why not just write my own sub-routines and write the g-codes myself?

[fizzissist]

<off topic, ignore>

[fizzissist]

<off topic, ignore>

[harryn]

You probably can buy it in the US and ship it back yourself. I would be surprised if you can get it past the VAT tax machine - it is quite efficient, and unfortuneately, nearly the worst possible tax strucure known to man. Not that we win any prizes for tax structure here.

The numbers I have heard for VAT are closer to 20 - 30%, not 2%. There might also be an import duty, but I am not sure.

In theory, a local company can buy it for you and ship it over, but that leaves complexity in warranty and responsibility for things going wrong. I have had firms offer to do a similar arrangement with me (I buy things, resell them locally at my own risk). With that kind of risk, the profit margin has to be really large.

Sometimes companies need some orders and are willing to dig in a little to get them - maybe if you are standing there with cash in hand, it helps. Don't underestimate banking fees and currency losses. A 5 - 10% loss in currency exchange is possible if you are not really careful.

[andrew2]

I was annoyed with the same issue. Not a Haas but a similair mill. Ended up buying from a New York distributer and shipped it over myself.
2.7% import duty, Crating charge, Container fee, devanning fee, port fee, bacs fee, tons of paperwork. The VAT is always the same, slightly less as its cheaper.
It was a pain, saved a good few thousand though, im about to buy another, will prob go the same route but use a freight forwarder to handle the import.

One thing, when it breaks, be prepared to get the diagrams out and go umm.