Hyundai Motor warns tariffs may jeopardize US production

Chicago: Hyundai Motor Co. warned it may rethink how many vehicles it builds in the US, joining the world’s largest automakers in speaking out against US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on steel and aluminum imports.

“Changes to the existing tariff structure could negatively impact our current US production and further expansion,” Jim Trainor, a Hyundai spokesman, said in an email. “Imposing tariffs on steel could increase production costs, which could lead to higher prices for US consumers, and, potentially, decreased demand.”

Trump said 1 March that the US plans to order tariffs of 25% on imported steel and 10% on aluminum, with a formal order to be signed next week. Hyundai’s comments go a step further than Toyota Motor Corp. and Ford Motor Co., which have cautioned that the tariffs would make vehicles costlier while stopping short of saying the levies could impact production plans.Honda Motor Co. on Saturday called the administration’s move “imprudent.”

The tariffs imposition would raise prices on both domestic and imported products, causing an unnecessary financial burden on its customers, Teruhiko Tatebe, a Honda spokesman, said by phone. The automaker sources its steel and aluminum extensively from US suppliers, he said.

Toyota, which plans to build a new $1.6 billion factory in Alabama with Mazda Motor Corp., said the administration’s decision will “adversely impact” auto companies by increasing costs and prices of cars and trucks sold in the US. That’s even as more than 90% of the steel that Asia’s largest carmaker needs in the US is from the country.

Trade groups representing automakers including General Motors Co. and Toyota, plus parts suppliers like Robert Bosch GmbH, had tried to warn the Trump administration of unintended consequences before the president’s announcement on the tariffs.

Hyundai Motor India Ltd.