Daimler Issues Profit Warning as China Duties Bite -- WSJ
June 21 2018 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
By William Boston
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (June 21, 2018).
BERLIN -- The escalating trade war between the U.S. and China
has claimed an unintended victim: Germany's premium car
manufacturer Daimler AG.
The Stuttgart-based maker of luxury sedans and muscular
sport-utility vehicles issued a surprise profit warning late
Wednesday, saying Chinese retaliatory import duties on vehicles
built in the U.S. would hit sales and profits of the SUVs it builds
at its Alabama factory.
"This effect cannot be fully compensated by the reallocation of
vehicles to other markets," Daimler said in a statement.
Daimler now expects pretax profits at its Mercedes-Benz Cars
division to dip slightly below the previous year's levels.
While Daimler called China's import tax on U.S. autos the
"decisive factor" in lower earnings, it said other divisions were
also weakening as a result of new European emissions regulation and
the decline of diesel. As a result, Daimler said 2018 group
earnings before interest and taxes would be lower than the previous
year.
The profit warning is one of the first clear signs that
President Donald Trump's decision to raise import tariffs on some
products from China and other trading partners is fueling a
retaliation that is hurting manufacturers in the U.S. that export
their products abroad.
German auto makers Daimler, BMW AG, and Volkswagen operate four
manufacturing plants in the U.S. that employ 36,500 American
workers. Last year, the German auto makers produced 804,200
vehicles at those plants, but less than half were sold in the U.S.
The rest, around 480,911 vehicles, were exported to Canada, Mexico,
Europe, China and other markets.
Industry executives have warned that if U.S. trade partners
retaliate against President Trump's import tariffs in a creeping
tit-for-tat trade war, U.S. jobs would ultimately be at risk.
Write to William Boston at william.boston@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 21, 2018 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
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