Car industry Fear of Trump's tariffs weighs on European car shares
The import tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump weighed heavily on the shares of European car manufacturers on Thursday. First and foremost, Porsche shares fell by 4.7 percent.
27.03.2025, 15:02
SDA
DZ Bank estimates the negative effect to be strongest at the sports car manufacturer. However, the other German industry giants Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz also suffered significant losses of 2.2 to 3.6 percent.
Trump announced additional tariffs of 25 percent on all car imports, exacerbating the global trade dispute. The tariffs are to apply to all imported cars - from small cars to saloons and SUVs to light commercial vehicles.
Trump's announcement on the European stage hit the Opel parent company Stellantis, which is also one of the major car manufacturers in the USA with its subsidiary Chrysler, quite hard. Stellantis shares recently fell by 4.6 percent in Paris, at times hitting a record low. The European sector index Stoxx Europe 600 Automobiles & Parts brought up the rear in the European sector ranking.
German car manufacturers in particular are likely to suffer
The German automotive industry in particular is likely to suffer from the tariffs, which are due to come into force on April 3 according to the White House. According to Commerzbank, Germany ranks fifth after Mexico, Japan, South Korea and Canada in terms of countries from which finished cars are imported into the USA.
Philippe Houchois from Jefferies Research estimates the value of the additional duty at around two percent of group turnover at BMW, one percent at VW and ten percent at Porsche AG.
Burden also for North American supply chains
According to experts at Commerzbank, the tariffs are also likely to have a negative impact on the supply chains of the North American automotive industry. In the USA, General Motors is also showing signs of a serious drop of 6.6 percent in pre-market trading.
Ford was down three percent. However, importers from Canada and Mexico can prove that their products contain US components, meaning that the duty will only be applied to the non-US value-added part.
Trump warns EU against cooperation with Canada
While the EU and other affected countries have already held out the prospect of counter-tariffs, Roeska's Bernstein colleague Stephen Reitman mentioned that negotiations are still possible.
However, Trump himself is going even further with his threats. If the EU cooperates with Canada to inflict economic damage on the US, both countries will be hit with much larger tariffs than currently envisaged, he wrote on the online platform Truth Social.
