The planned American load of 25 percent on steel and aluminum products would soon also hit many domestic companies. Voestalpine, Amag, BMW Steyr, Magna, Glock and others do good business in the United States, our exports there recently grew strongly.
Important details such as the time of effectiveness are still missing, but that US President Donald Trump will make his announcements and will soon introduce high rates in imported steel and aluminum products are probably fixed. “Customs is my favorite word in the dictionary,” he announced grinning. According to his statements, the levy should make no less than 25 percent.
The reason is that the United States buy about a quarter of steel needs from Canada, Brazil, Mexico etc. With aluminum it is almost 50 percent, usually from Canada. Trump wants to compensate for this trade minus by becoming considerably more expensive and local production gets competitive benefits.
For the industry of Austria this is an extra blow to the already weak economy. For example, at Steel we delivered 243,000 tons in the previous year (plus 43,000 tons of aluminum). The export value was around 653 million euros. In addition, processed metal products were recently our export hit to the US. The export from Austria to North America flourished last year by 14 percent to 14 billion euros. Machines, devices, vehicles, etc. were particularly successful. Large companies did, for example, BMW Steyr, Magna, Pistolenriense Glock, Footsalpine and the Amag.
Customs already in the first term of office
These two higher Austrian groups are therefore currently investigating possible consequences. In any case, the share price of the Voest dropped immediately. However, they have experience with this situation, because in its first term in the first term the special rates of Trump 2018 of 25 percent for steel and 10 percent on aluminum. At that time, Amag was largely able to incur the extra costs for its customers, such as B. Furthermore, offset the aircraft manufacturer Boeing and got out with a blue eye.
At the time, De Voest was expected to be a damper for a maximum of three percent of world turnover. It didn’t happen so badly, and the Linz with 49 locations are already enormously in the United States, for example for racing switches, which reduces the threat. At that time there was also the possibility to receive exceptional permits for special products, and in the end they agreed with the EU to adjust quota reasons.
This time the domestic companies hope for such pragmatic solutions. The EU also plants its own punitive rates as a means for pressure. Harley Motorcycles, Whiskey and Jeans were taxed in 2018. In any case, however, our economic growth will shrink. According to Wifo Boss Felbermayr, our export would “suffer”.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
