Quote (duffman316 @ 4 Jun 2018 17:33)
#winning
One of the world’s biggest suppliers of assembly and fastening materials, Germany’s Würth Group, will not invest any more in the United States while President Donald Trump is in power, the patriarch of the Würth family has said.
Reinhold Würth, popularly known in Germany as the “Screw King,” told the Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag that he had “made sure we are no longer investing in the U.S. at the moment.”
“We make 14% of our annual sales there—€1.8 billion [$2.1 billion]—but I do not want to increase our engagement in America any further,” he said, explaining how he still made his presence felt at the privately-held company at the age of 83.
Würth said his reticence about further investment was based on the “general, uncertain political situation” in the U.S. “I said, we’ll wait and see if President Trump is re-elected in four years,” he told the paper. “Würth returns when he goes.”
The billionaire’s comments came just after President Trump imposed hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the EU, Canada and Mexico. According to U.S. figures, Germany is the source of 4% of American steel imports. Just over 2% of U.S. aluminum imports come from Germany.
from a protectionist standpoint, this
is winning. apparently, the tariffs have successfully deterred a foreign competitor from the american steel market. and the numbers dont lie: just over 2% of US aluminium imports come from germany, and not all imports from germany are coming from the Würth Group, while the US market makes up 14% of their revenue. the question of who's got the leverage in this situation should have an obvious answer.