Ford Motor Co. is escalating its criticism of the administration’s metals tariffs that the company has already said took a $1 billion bite out of profit.
This story by Keith Naughton and Joe Deaux originally appeared on Industry Week.
“U.S. steel costs are more than anywhere else in the world,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of global operations, said on Oct. 22 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 CEO Jim Hackett last month called on President Donald Trump’s administration to resolve trade disputes quickly, warning that it would otherwise do “more damage” to the second-largest American automaker.
He said the company sustained the roughly $1 billion hit to profit despite the fact that it sources most of the materials from the U.S.
Domestic hot-rolled coil – the benchmark price for American-made steel – has gained 28 percent in 2018 as the administration implemented tariffs on imports.
