Ford Says Trump Tariffs Make U.S. Steel Costliest in the World
Trump has portrayed his levies as key to getting other countries to cow to his trade demands ... he referred to those who have complained about tariffs as “babies.”
“U.S. steel costs are more than anywhere else in the world,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of global operations, said Monday at an event marking the start of Ranger pickup production at a factory west of Detroit. He added that Ford is talking to the administration about the tariffs: “We tell them that we need to have competitive costs in our market in order to compete around the world.”
Ford Chief Executive Officer Jim Hackett last month called on President Donald Trump’s administration to resolve trade disputes quickly, warning that they would otherwise do more damage to the second-largest American automaker. He said the company sustained a roughly $1 billion hit to profit despite the fact that it sources most of its metals from the U.S.
Domestic hot-rolled coil -- the benchmark price for American-made steel -- has gained 28 percent in 2018 as the Trump administration implemented tariffs on imports. The levies helped push prices to about $920 a metric ton earlier this year, the highest in a decade. U.S. steel currently costs about $260 more per short ton than steel in China.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-22/ford-says-trump-tariffs-makes-u-s-steel-costliest-in-the-world?srnd=premium
= new reply since forum marked as read
