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International carmakers are rushing to ship vehicles and core components to the US to get ahead of the next round of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which threaten to wreak havoc automotive supply chains.
In response to requests from auto manufacturers, car-carrying vessels have been dispatched to Asia and Europe amid plans to carry “thousands” more vehicles than usual to the US, according to industry officials.
Lasse Kristoffersen, chief executive of the leading vehicle shipping line Wallenius Wilhelmsen, told the Financial Times that there was “more volume out of Asia than we’re able to take from our customers”.
The company has added capacity to address the demand, he said, adding that the increase would be larger were it not for the industry’s shortage of car-carrier vessels.
Trump has said that “reciprocal” tariffs on the US’s trading partners will come into effect on April 2 — the same day that a 30-day reprieve ends on the president’s pledge to impose 25 per cent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada.
South Korean carmakers Hyundai and Kia were among those trying to ship more vehicles to the US before the new tariff deadline, according to another shipping executive. Hyundai declined to comment on its strategy but said: “We continuously optimise our shipment plans to adapt to market conditions.”
An official at a German carmaker said it was shipping more vehicles from Europe to the US to address the tariff threat.
The rush has led to a 22 per cent per cent year-on-year rise in vehicle shipments from the EU to the US in February, while those from Japan increased 14 per cent. Shipments from South Korea to North America were up 15 per cent.
Stian Omli, senior vice-president at Esgian, a platform monitoring car carriers, said there was a “noticeable increase” in vessels heading from Europe to the US.
“We do see an increase out of Europe and we will probably soon see an increase out of east Asia,” he said, adding that vessels needed to complete their journey to be counted. “There are a lot of car carriers reporting they will go to the US, which is a clear indication of increased activity.”
Companies producing cars and components in Mexico and Canada are also preparing for tariffs on imports to the US. Honda is trying to bring forward shipments from these two countries, while Chrysler and Jeep owner Stellantis said it was moving stocks across the border into its US plants and producing more vehicles during the one-month hiatus.
“When you look at the vehicles we produce in Canada and Mexico, we have a pretty good supply on the ground right now with our dealers, probably 70 to 80 days of most of those units,” Doug Ostermann, Stellantis’s chief financial officer, said at a conference on Tuesday.
Another logistics executive who works in the car supply chain said manufacturers of electronic goods used in cars such as stereo systems were “looking to stockpile more into the US”.
The approach is not uniform across the industry, however. Toyota said it “has not been increasing vehicle imports to the United States from Japan (or from other countries) in anticipation of possible future tariffs” while two Japanese car carriers reported little change in demand.
While the 30-day delay to tariffs have given carmakers additional time to ship inventory to the US, Cody Lusk, chief executive of the American International Automobile Dealers Association said the bigger uncertainty was over how long the tariffs would last and who they would ultimately apply to.
“We’re all waiting to see,” Lusk said. “Is each country treated differently? Is everybody the same?”
Wallenius Wilhelmsen’s Kristoffersen said: “The bigger question is how will it affect the car trade over time . . . Customers are very uncertain which direction this will take.”
Additional reporting by Claire Bushey in Chicago and Patricia Nilsson in Frankfurt
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