Just got an e-mail from CAS Hanwei informing dealers that the factory in China has ceased production. The information they have on this is sketchy and there is no need to speculate on why this is happening. The belief is that prices, once production resumes will increase signifcantly. If so then MSRP would be pushed to the point that some of their swords could become too expensive for the average person. CAS speculates that they will not be able to restock before mid-year.

Chinese New Year of the dargon

My thoughts on it anyway.

GC

Ask Blake Pogue, he is around here somewhere.

New Year is a fifteen day deal. Whatever. I saw an sh2004 leaning up in a corner somewhere. ;)

Seeing as there seems to have been a year end distribution of goods, it makes sense that the next we would see would be in some months. I somehow don't read what you are posting as some grand crisis, just the cost of doig business. New building and all that as well.

Cheers

GC

Quick, supply is constrained. Unfulfilled demand will mean all your used Hanwei's will finally be worth something!!! ;)

Guess we just get to wait and see!

Kult of Athena just raised the prices on their Hanwei pieces significantly.

Unfortunately, taking a sword I was planning on purchasing out of my price range. Oh, well, hopefully prices won't increase to much in the long run.

Will this impact the GDFB mail items as well? I have an order pending on some rings and a riveting too from By the Sword, I didn't know that they were out of stock but the customer service rep said that the rings are produced by one factory and that nobody has gotten a shipment for a while. She went on to say that they would have them back in stock in two to three weeks. Seeing this news, I'm wondering if that's an accurate assessment.....

It looks like KOA has raised their prices on cas hanwei by 10 to 30 dollars. The tinker line seems to have shot up a lot higher than everything else. It also looks like they've stopped production of bare blades and blunts for the tinker line, which sucks. I guess a price increase had to happen sometime, seeing as hanwei's factory blew up a few months back.

Not to speculate but this is from the CAS Iberia website, so fairly reliable I would assume.

"Nov 5
Rebuilding update!

Please go to our Facebook page for the lastest pictures of the Hanwei factory rebuilding process after the devastating fire in March"

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=101502...mp;theater

Not sure this is the reason but knowing how large of quantities CAS was importing at one time if it was in March they may have run out of their stock and since rebuilding has taken so long still not be back to full production if any.

Who knows. Sad as their quality was improving greatly.

RPM

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. They've improved a lot lately, and I'd really hate to see them go under. I know the whole industry is probably feeling the pinch in this economy.

Hey guys,

I just posted this to our FB page and working on getting it to the website as well;

We have been advised by Hanwei that they were unable to complete their new factory building before winter weather halted construction, and as a result they have stopped production until April. In addition factory prices will increase once production resumes. We believe that the increases are partly due to sharply increased labor and material costs in China but have been given no information beyond this. This temporary disruption in product from Hanwei will have no affect on our GDFB or Rawlings polymer sparring sword lines. Thanks from everyone at CAS Hanwei for your continued support, we'll do our best to keep everyone up to date as we get further information from Hanwei!

Let me know if you have any questions.

Blake

Don't most places DROP prices when they go out of business? (shrug)

Speculation is bad for everyone.

Don't do this again.

Sounds to me like this would be an opportune time for another manufacturer to grab some or more of that market! Windlass? Cold Steel? Maybe even BKS?? I know it's near impossible to hit the same price points, but I'm sure these companies can come close.