Impending trade conflicts
Auto shares collapse because of US tariffs
Donald Trump’s customs offensive against imports from Mexico, Canada and China has consequences for German car manufacturers – on the stock exchange.
An impending trade war of the United States with important trading partners has auto and truck shares sag. The BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen papers temporarily fell by five to 7 percent on Monday morning. The papers of truck manufacturers Daimler Truck and Traton also lost significantly, and the share prices of suppliers such as Continental and Knorr-Bremse also fell.
At the weekend, US President Donald Trump imposed on imports from neighboring Mexico and Canada tariffs of 25 percent, only 10 percent on energy imports from Canada. An additional 10 percent are due on all imports from China. And the EU could follow soon.
The problem: The big German car manufacturers and many suppliers use Mexico as a production site-and from there operate the US market. VW, Audi and BMW have their own factories in the country, Mercedes-Benz produced in a community work with Nissan.
Shared opinions about consequences for car manufacturers
Analyst Philippe Houchois from the investment house Jefferies, however, sees less the German manufacturers affected than the large US car companies. The US import duties are likely to increase vehicle prices in the United States or the production costs by an average of 6 percent if there is no quick de-escalation, he said.
The Jefferies specialist sees comparatively lower dangers – albeit on the basis of an earlier analysis – because of the more global line -up, for example at Volkswagen. BMW and Mercedes-Benz are valuable net exporters from the USA, he points out. Jose Asumendi, analyst at the Bank JPmorgan, sees, on the other hand, sees the larger effects at Daimler Truck, Volkswagen, Traton and Stellantis.
dpa
Source: Stern
