“For the full year, we still expect about 250 basis points of price realization, with about one hundred basis points from tariff-related pricing and about 150 basis points from underlying price.” That is Rockwell Automation’s CFO, Christian Rothe, in the prepared remarks for the August 4, 2026 call. The tariff is 100 basis points of your Rockwell bill in fiscal 2026, it sits on list price by product group code, and Rockwell’s letters call it non-negotiable. The other 150 basis points is ordinary price, and the September 6, 2026 list action is priced to memory and printed circuit boards, not customs. This piece reads the fiscal 2026 calls and letters, the Siemens and Schneider equivalents, the duty a PLC cabinet pays by origin, and what to ask before the frame agreement renews.
Source: Open Factory Public Bid-Tab Price Book (compiled from Rockwell Automation Forms 10-K FY2021 to FY2025, Q3 FY2026 prepared remarks, BLS PPI WPU1175; as of September 2026)
Rockwell’s 10-K filings put price at about 1 point of sales in fiscal 2021, 3.3 in fiscal 2022, 5.5 in fiscal 2023, 2 in fiscal 2024 and 3 in fiscal 2025, which compounds to 18.5% by the end of fiscal 2026 at the 250 basis point guide. The BLS index for switchgear, switchboard and industrial controls (WPU1175) averaged 401.5 in the ten months to July 2026 against 234.8 in fiscal 2020, up 71%, because it carries the gear in Why Your Switchgear Costs 50% More Than in 2021. A PLC buyer has had an easier five years than a switchgear buyer; the Public Bid-Tab Price Book tracks both.
How the 250 Basis Points Were Built
The guide moved three times. On November 6, 2025, Rothe said “We expect a couple of points of price for fiscal 2026, 1% on underlying price and 1% from tariff price,” after a quarter in which “about 4 points of our organic growth came from price, with about 1 point of that coming from tariff-based pricing.” On February 5, 2026 it was still “two points of total price.” On May 5, 2026 it became “250 basis points of total price for fiscal 2026, with 150 basis points coming from underlying price and 100 basis points from tariff-based price. This is an increase of 50 basis points from our prior outlook all from underlying price,” and the reason given was memory, “a double-digit million-dollar headwind in the back half.”
Source: Open Factory Public Bid-Tab Price Book
The 10-Q series runs from 1 point of price in the quarter to December 2021 to 7 points in the quarter to December 2022, back to 1 point in the quarter to December 2024, then 3 points for four quarters as tariffs arrived, and 1 point in the quarter to June 2026, when “core price/cost was unfavorable in the quarter, reflecting rising costs and the timing of price increases.” The answer was a list increase “late in Q3 that will be realized in Q4,” the September 6, 2026 action.
The tariff points are designed to make Rockwell whole, not richer. The 10-K says “tariff costs are expected to be neutral to EPS in fiscal 2026,” the May 2025 remarks said “the objective of tariff-based price changes is the recovery of the incremental cost, and not sales growth”, and Rothe told the August 2026 call that “tariff-based pricing is really there to create EPS neutrality around tariff-based cost. It’s not really all that incremental.” In aggregate you pay Rockwell’s customs bill and nothing more; on your bill of materials, an adder set by price group code has no reason to match the duty on the box in front of you, and the Tariff Exposure Calculator is where to check the gap.
Eleven Letters in Nineteen Months
Rockwell posts customer letters under legal notices and distributors post the letters to distributors, so the actions are on the record even when the percentages are not. The February 3, 2025 letter set, effective February 1, “a 1.5% List Price adjustment to a subset of the Rockwell Automation portfolio” for the 10% China tariff, “non-negotiable,” plus a consolidation of the March, June and September quarterly adjustments into one action worth “approximately a 3% additional increase.” The affected price group codes include 71E, Advanced Processors and I/O, where a ControlLogix 5580 lives.
Source: Open Factory Public Bid-Tab Price Book
Data: rockwell-price-increases.csv
The table holds 14 actions from May 2024 to September 2026, 9 of them Rockwell’s; Rockwell published a percentage on 6, Siemens on none. The March 4, 2025 letter is the most specific document any of the three has issued: “the number of total PGCs impacted is 228, while 617 PGCs are not impacted by these tariffs at all. The incremental China tariff will result in a 1.5% increase on 166 of the 228 PGCs, the Mexico tariff will result in a 3.0% increase on 176 of the PGCs, and the Canada tariff will result in a 0.75% increase on 21 of the PGCs.” The March 7 letter “fully retracts the Canada and Mexico tariff-based increases” after the USMCA pause, while “the China tariff-based increases will need to remain in place.” Distributor HESCO’s June 9, 2025 summary adds a tiered 1.75% to 8.25% increase on May 18 and 2.5% on 45 legacy groups on July 5, a distributor’s account that the CSV marks as such.
The 2026 letters change subject. The March 5, 2026 customer letter adds to the April 5 annual adjustment “an additional update to reflect market pricing impacts” from post-Supreme Court tariff changes and from AI data centers driving “memory, semiconductor components, and critical metals.” The August 6, 2026 letter sets the September 6 action on the Section 301 rates of “10% and 12.5%” that replaced Section 122 on July 24, plus “extraordinary cost surges in memory, semiconductive electronic components, and printed circuit boards,” with percentages given only on “a Distributor Operations Special Action Call.” Neither letter prints a number, the behaviour the OEM Disclosure Scorecard grades.
The Duty Versus the Adder
A PLC cabinet enters under HTS 8537.10.91, and the tariff schedule as of September 9, 2026 puts the duty at 0% from Mexico or Canada under USMCA, 9.8% from Korea, 10% from the EU and Taiwan, 12.5% from Japan, 12.7% from India, 15.2% from Vietnam and 40.2% from China, where the 2018 List 3 rate of 25% stacks on July 2026’s 12.5% Section 301 action and the 2.7% column 1 rate. Controls carry no Section 232 metal tariff, unlike the transformers in Tariff Bill of Materials.
Source: Open Factory Tariff Exposure Calculator (HTS 2026 Rev. 18; 91 FR 47318; 9903.88.03), Rockwell Automation letters to distributors Feb 3, Mar 4 and Mar 7 2025
The China-linked adders total 3.0% of list on the affected price groups against a duty that was 20% when they were set and is 40.2% on a finished cabinet today, because the adder is on China content inside a product built elsewhere; the Mexico adder was 3.0% against a 25% rate and lasted three days. Ask country of origin by catalog number before accepting a tariff line: on a USMCA-qualifying assembly the duty is zero, and Rockwell’s terms of sale let the price move anyway: “Seller may at any time prior to shipment, upon notice to Buyer, adjust the prices for Products to address any increase in any additional or new tariff, duty, or similar tax affecting the Products.” Quote Check asks for the origin field for this reason.
Siemens, Schneider and Emerson Did It Differently
Siemens Digital Industries spent fiscal 2025 clearing the channel: in the Q2 FY2025 release “destocking of elevated stock levels at customers approached completion toward the end of Q2 FY 2025” in China, and in Q3 FY2025 revenue was EUR 4,421 million, down 10%, at a 14.5% margin. Then Q4 FY2025 orders up 29%, a fiscal 2026 margin guide of 15% to 19% raised in May 2026 to 17% to 19%, and 18.7% in Q3 FY2026. Siemens Industry’s April 1, 2025 notification put “updated list pricing” into effect May 1, 2025 for all channels, capped pre-increase orders at “a 12-month average customer run rate,” and gave percentages to channel partners only. Siemens never separated tariff from underlying price in a filing; the margin recovery from 14.5% to 18.7% in four quarters is the number to hold at the table.
Schneider Electric publishes a price bridge. In the H1 2026 release gross pricing on products was plus EUR 280 million, raw materials minus EUR 330 million, net tariffs minus EUR 104 million and net price minus EUR 154 million, with North America up 23% organic in the second quarter. Its letters are plainer: a “tailored 3% average price increase” from May 5, 2024, a Canadian “average range of 3 to 5% effective May 1, 2025” applied through multipliers, and a May 1, 2025 US action that distributor Power Solutions described as 10% across all products. Emerson disclosed “Price contributed 2.5 pts” in the September 2025 quarter, guided the same for fiscal 2026, then printed 3 points in the June 2026 quarter and $82 million of IEEPA refunds. The Book-to-Bill League Table carries all four vendors side by side.
The Backlog Is Gone, So the Price Is Live
Source: Open Factory Lead-Time Monitor (compiled from Rockwell Automation Forms 10-K FY2021 to FY2025; Q2 FY2023 call as reported by Manufacturing Dive, May 8 2023; as of November 2025)
Rockwell’s backlog went from $1,557 million in September 2020 to $5,197 million in September 2022, a peak of $5.6 billion at March 31, 2023, then $4,109 million, $3,091 million and $2,878 million in September 2025, with Intelligent Devices down to $704 million from $2,086 million. A backlog is a price hedge: the 7 points booked in the December 2022 quarter were charged to orders placed months earlier, and Rockwell’s January 2025 remarks said it would “reprice our backlog to reflect our new price lists” for tariffs. With the product backlog “largely cleared” since May 2024, most ControlLogix orders ship at the list in force on the ship date; the ControlLogix lead-time cycle is the same story from the delivery side, and the Lead-Time Monitor reads a falling backlog as the first sign that price discipline will loosen.
Where the Discount Actually Sits
Rockwell sells “approximately 65 percent” of global sales through independent distributors, the two largest about 20% of sales, and the quote you receive is the distributor’s. Two mechanics in the same 10-K separate the adder from your discount. The adder is on list, and list is Rockwell’s: the letters call it “non-negotiable” so it can be removed “with the same speed” if the tariff goes. Your price is not the distributor’s margin but Rockwell’s rebate: “Our primary incentive program provides distributors with cash rebates or account credits based on agreed amounts that vary depending on the customer to whom our distributor ultimately sells the product.” The negotiable number in a Rockwell quote is the end-user rebate Rockwell pays your distributor, and a tariff adder on list flows through the multiplier at full strength unless that rebate is re-based. The Grainger confession is the MRO version of the same structure; the Public Bid-Tab Price Book bands come from awards, the only public place list-minus-multiplier shows up.
Rockwell’s cancellation and returns policy of March 4, 2026 keeps cancellation charges at 18% for stock and 25% for non-stock, return charges at 20% and 50%, “will not allow changes to a product’s delivery date,” and “reserves the right to impose purchasing limits on all orders.” Rockwell “cancelled some orders” it judged were pre-buys, Siemens capped them at run rate, and the RFQ for capital equipment now puts price validity and tariff adjustment on the front page.
What to Do Monday
Mark every price group code on your bill of materials that appears on the February 1 and March 4, 2025 lists; 71E is ControlLogix processors and I/O. Ask for the April 5 and September 6, 2026 percentages by PGC, which were given on distributor calls only. Run country of origin by catalog number through the Tariff Exposure Calculator: a Monterrey-built panel pays 0%, so a 3.0% list adder on it is a conversation, not a customs cost. Raise the IEEPA refund: the June 2026 10-Q says Rockwell has filed with CBP “for a large portion of the IEEPA tariffs paid” and “expects to implement a refund process for qualified customers”; Who Gets the IEEPA Refund covers who qualifies. Put the Lead-Time-Adjusted Schedule date next to the price-validity date on the PO, and check the Automation Roadmap for the next Section 301 review before fixing a term past twelve months.
Behind the paywall: the nine questions to put to the distributor before the frame agreement renews, in the order that gets answers, and the one clause that turns Rockwell’s 100 basis points of tariff price into a line you can audit against the Tariff Exposure Calculator and the Public Bid-Tab Price Book.