An employee works at the factory of the car manufacturer Renault in Dieppe
European automakers are falling at the start of Tuesday's session, as investors digest future President Donald Trump's promise to introduce significant tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, which could trigger a global trade war.
The European auto sector share index posted the worst sectoral performance after the open, down 1.6% around 09:40 GMT compared with a 0.6% fall in the Stoxx 600.
German manufacturers Volkswagen and BMW lost 2.24% and 1.33% respectively, while French manufacturer Valeo fell 2.61%. The biggest loser is Stellantis, which drops 4.14%.
“Stellantis would be the most affected by the customs duties on Mexico, because the group imported 358,000 units in 2023, that is to say approximately 7% of its total vehicles and 85% of its imports and exports,” Intermonte said.
According to the operator, current customs duties on exports from Mexico to the United States are between 0% and 2.5% depending on the origin of the components, while Donald Trump announced customs duties by 25%.
For the Franco-Italian group, “each additional percentage point on customs duties could have an impact on pre-tax profit of around 160 million euros, or 1.4% of expectations for 2025,” estimates Intermonte.
(Romolo Tosani, Giancarlo Navach, Samuel Indyk and Lucy Raitano; edited by Pauline Foret; edited by Augustin Turpin)
