The trade war makes a first, illustrious, victim. Daimler has issued a profit warning leaving the market stunned. The German automaker, which owns major brands such as Mercedes Benz Car and Vans, Smart and Daimler Truck, announced this morning that due to the duties looming over the import of cars exported from the United States to China, sales of Mercedes sports vehicles High-margin Benzes will drop, and with them profits. at increases wanted by Donald Trump for reasons of "national security", Beijing has decided to respond by in turn imposing higher tariffs on products from the US.
In particular, the sales of the SUVs that Daimler builds in Alabama could suffer the main setbacks. An announcement that surprised even the Stock Exchange, all the more so if we take into consideration that the Stuttgart group closed 2017 with record figures. At 10.15, in Frankfurt Daimler shares drop 4,22% to 57,9 euros, weighing down the entire European auto sector (the sector index loses 1,5%): Volkswagen -2,9%, BMW -3,2%, FCA -2,1%. Brembo also down (-1,4%).
“Sales below expectations of SUVs and an above-expected increase in costs, not completely passed on to consumers, are to be hypothesized due to theincrease in import duties for US vehicles to the Chinese market”, reads the note from the group, according to which “the effect cannot be fully offset by the reallocation of vehicles to other markets”. Martin Daum, head of trucks of the German group, also declared that "duties make our life much more difficult".
Daimler therefore estimates for 2018 an Ebit slightly below last year's level rather than being slightly higher as previously expected, but more importantly it becomes the first house to raise an alarm on the consequences of the ongoing trade war between China and the United States.
It should be underlined that Beijing has confirmed that, starting from July 6, new duties will be introduced on the import of some American products, including cars, in response to the duties announced by the Trump administration.
