Ford has been touting its American-made roots as Trump's tariffs target international automakers, but the company's CEO has warned it's still dependent on global trade to make its vehicles.
Jim Farley, appearing on CNN, said Ford will be affected when tariffs go into effect this Saturday on auto parts, which could raise consumer prices. And while the White House is encouraging companies to buy domestically made parts, that's just not possible some of the time.
"We have to import certain parts,” Farley said. “A lot of parts, like fasteners, washers, carpet … are just not available. We can’t even buy those parts here.”
And even when some parts might be availably from U.S. suppliers, the CEO said, it makes more economic sense to buy imports as doing otherwise would drive retail prices notably higher. Between 20% and 25% of the parts made to make the best-selling F-150, for instance, are imported, Farley said.
“The affordability of parts is a really important thing for America because we’ve got to keep the vehicles affordable,” he said. "Yes, we want to make them like Ford does in the U.S., but we also want to make the vehicles affordable that are built in the U.S.”
To stoke demand as tariffs impact pricing, Ford will continue to offer its employee pricing for another month, but that doesn't mean buyers still won't have some sticker shock, especially when the promotion ends.
Analysts have warned tariffs could add thousands of dollars to car prices. Even with the executive order signed Tuesday that offers tariff relief to automakers, prices are still set to increase.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
免責聲明:投資有風險,本文並非投資建議,以上內容不應被視為任何金融產品的購買或出售要約、建議或邀請,作者或其他用戶的任何相關討論、評論或帖子也不應被視為此類內容。本文僅供一般參考,不考慮您的個人投資目標、財務狀況或需求。TTM對信息的準確性和完整性不承擔任何責任或保證,投資者應自行研究並在投資前尋求專業建議。