What Fastenal Company told the SEC could break it.

Fastenal's fastener and private-label suppliers, though numerous, are heavily concentrated in Asia — with China and Taiwan a significant source — and even North American suppliers often originate parts from Asian facilities, making the supply chain dependent on unfettered cross-region trade.

“In the case of fasteners and our private label non-fastener products, we have a large number of suppliers but these suppliers are heavily concentrated in a single geographic area, Asia. Within Asia, suppliers in China and Taiwan represent a significant source of product. Further, in many cases where we source directly from a North American supplier, the original country of origin of the acquired parts is the supplier's Asian facilities.”

Since February 2025 the U.S. imposed additional, fluid, and legally-challenged duties and tariffs; with inventory heavily Asia-sourced, this drove ~170-200 bps of tariff-related pricing and disrupted FMI device volume, with uncertain ongoing impact on margins.

“Since February 2025, the U.S. government has imposed additional duties and tariffs in an effort to promote U.S. production of goods and improved trade balance with our global trading partners. This environment has been very fluid, resulting in several changes to the duties and tariffs enacted throughout the year. Certain of the duties and tariffs enacted are being challenged from a legal perspective.”

Fastenal relies on a limited number of suppliers for distribution equipment and its vehicle fleet and primarily one supplier for its industrial vending equipment (core to its FMI model), though it believes viable alternatives exist.

“For example, we utilize a limited number of suppliers for our distribution equipment and our vehicle fleet, and primarily one supplier for our industrial vending equipment. However, we believe there are viable alternatives to each of these, if necessary.”

During 2025, one supplier accounted for more than 5% of Fastenal's inventory purchases, with all remaining suppliers below that threshold.

“During 2025, we had a single supplier that accounted for more than 5% of our inventory purchases, whereas all remaining suppliers fell below that threshold.”