Roughly one in every three printers sold globally by HP Inc. is built in China, a staggering statistic that exposes both the strength—and vulnerability—of HP’s global strategy. While its Weihai manufacturing hub delivers unmatched scale, speed, and cost efficiency, it also places HP at the epicenter of a booming gray market where toner cloners and counterfeiters aggressively undercut its highly profitable supplies business. Critics argue that the same supply chain advantages powering HP’s dominance are also enabling a parallel ecosystem of copycat consumables, chipping away at margins and brand control. As HP doubles down on China to drive growth, the uncomfortable reality remains: the very engine producing one-third of its printers may also be accelerating the erosion of its most lucrative revenue stream.
