A impending US trade war With important partners, car and truck shares pulled down heavily at the start of the week. US President Donald Trump (78) imposed on imports from the neighboring countries of Mexico and Canada Customs of 25 percent, only 10 percent on energy imports from Canada. On all imports China an additional 10 percent are due. And the EU could follow soon.
The shares of BMW,, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen fell by 4 to 5 percent on Monday morning.
The papers of the truck manufacturers Daimler Truck and Step lost as clearly, and also the share prices of suppliers such as Continental And Knorr-Bremse fell.
Industry index heavily burdened
The European industry index Stoxx Europe 600 Automobiles fell by 3.6 percent as the bottom of the Sector Tableau. He had recently recovered significantly from the intermediate low in November and approached the 200-day line again. This still downward indicator for the long -term trend has now come into a little further distance.
The problem: The big German car manufacturers and many suppliers use Mexico as a production location-and from there serve the US market. VW, Audi And BMW have its own factories in the country, Mercedes-Benz produced in a community work with Nissan.
Analysts see US carmakers under pressure
Analyst Philippe Houchois from the investment house Jefferies, however, sees less German manufacturers affected than much more the big US car company. 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.
Houchois and the amber expert Daniel Roeska agree that the large US companies should be most affected, i.e. next to ford and Chrysler (belongs to Stellantis) above all General Motors (GM). With the US electric car builders Tesla, Rivian and Lucid limit the entire assembly in the United States the risks of prices for supply parts, added Houchois.
Jose Asumendi, analyst at the Bank JPmorgan, sees, on the other hand, see the larger effects at Daimler Truck, Volkswagen, Traton and Stellantis, while Iveco, Renault, Michelin and Volvo Truck are comparatively better positioned, said the expert.
Actually, it could also be assumed that manufacturers of upper class vehicles can easily pass on their customers more than mass producers. However, before a final assessment, it should now be waiting for how the US tariffs have an impact on prices, suppliers and measures by the car manufacturers.