Latest news with #VDMA
TimesLIVE
3 days ago
- Automotive
- TimesLIVE
VW flags ‘massive' US investments and says tariff talks constructive
Volkswagen wants to make more big investments in the US, CEO Oliver Blume said in an interview with a German newspaper on Friday, adding tariff talks with the US government were "fair" and "constructive". Several foreign companies have announced US investments in response to President Donald Trump's import tariffs, but German carmakers have been more cautious about committing more resources to what is their biggest export market. Volkswagen's Audi brand, which has no production in the US, is planning to produce some models there, though the brand has said the plan pre-dates the Trump administration. "So far we have had absolutely fair, constructive discussions," Blume told Sueddeutsche Zeitung. "I was in Washington myself and we have been in regular dialogue ever since." Blume, who also leads Porsche AG as CEO, said Volkswagen's main contact in Washington was US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, adding he had agreed to keep details of the discussions confidential. Sources told Reuters last wee German carmakers including Volkswagen were in talks with Washington over a possible import tariff deal, seeking to use their US investments and exports as leverage to soften any blow. Trump's trade war has cost companies more than $34bn (R608.69bn) in lost sales and higher costs, according to a Reuters analysis of corporate disclosures, with companies pursuing different strategies to cope. Most tariffs were blocked by a US trade court last week, but a federal appeals court has temporarily reinstated them to consider the Trump administration's appeal against the trade court's ruling. The 25% tariff imposed on car imports earlier this year has not been affected by the rulings. Uncertainty worse than tariffs In a recent survey by Germany's Machinery and Equipment Manufacturers Association (VDMA), nearly three quarters of participants said uncertainty over US trade policy had a strong impact on companies' competitiveness, while only 43% said the same for the 10% tariffs slapped on goods from most US trading partners. "The uncertainty surrounding the US tariffs is causing more problems in our sector than the tariffs themselves," Andrew Adair, VDMA's trade policy adviser for North America, told Reuters. "Uncertainty causes customers to delay purchasing decisions, including American companies that are motivated to purchase machinery to ramp up their local production." Asked what Blume was offering in the talks, which aim to reduce the 25% autos levy, he said: "The Volkswagen Group wants to invest further in the US. We have a growth strategy." Blume said the Volkswagen Group employed more than 20,000 people directly and more than 55,000 people indirectly in the US, and highlighted a $5.8bn (R103.80bn) investment in US company Rivian. "We would build on this with further massive investments," Blume said. Such investments should be factored into any decisions regarding tariffs, said Blume, who said he hoped Brussels and Washington would reach a broad deal for all industries. Blume declined to say when a deal with Washington could be struck when asked about BMW CEO Oliver Zipse's assessment that tariffs would likely fall from July. "Of course, I also want it to happen quickly. But it depends on many factors and I can't promise anything."
Business Wire
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Wire
VDMA Forecast 2025: German Robotics and Automation Faces Ten Percent Revenue Drop
FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The robotics and automation industry in Germany is expected to generate total sales of €14.5 billion in 2025. This is a drop of ten percent compared to the previous year. VDMA Forecast 2025: German Robotics and Automation Faces Ten Percent Revenue Drop Share 'The revenue weakness announced at the start of the year has been confirmed in our current forecast for 2025,' says Dr. Dietmar Ley, Chairman of VDMA Robotics + Automation. 'Growth prospects are currently clouded in all subsectors through the end of the year.' Robotics + Automation: The Three Subsectors The Machine Vision subsector is stagnating with zero growth and is expected to generate industry revenues of €3.1 billion. The forecast for robotics has slightly worsened from minus 3 percent to minus 5 percent, with expected revenues of €3.7 billion for 2025. The sharpest decline is anticipated for Automated Solutions, with a projected revenue drop of 15 percent to €7.7 billion. Strengthening Competitiveness Key causes of the economic weakness in Europe and Germany include postponed investment plans due to current geopolitical tensions and increasing competitive pressure from Asian rivals. Companies in the robotics and automation industry are therefore working hard to strengthen their own competitiveness. At the world's leading marketplace for automated production, automatica in Munich (June 24–27), the latest technologies and trends for all industrial sectors will be presented. 'VDMA Robotics Action Plan for Europe' 'Robotics and automation are key technologies without which industrial production in a high-wage country like Germany will no longer be conceivable in the future,' says Dr. Dietmar Ley. 'Politics and business must now take concerted action to reduce location-based disadvantages in international competition and set the course for renewed growth.' To this end, the 'VDMA Robotics Action Plan for Europe' sets out three core demands: Make more venture capital available for startups and scale-ups. Establish a roadmap for competitiveness. Focus specifically on scaling up European innovation. In addition, the investment support announced by the new German government must now be swiftly implemented. A political dialogue on these topics will take place during Poland's EU Council Presidency on June 23, 2025, at the Polish Embassy in Berlin.
Time of India
5 days ago
- Automotive
- Time of India
Volkswagen flags 'massive' US investments and says tariff talks constructive
Volkswagen wants to make more big investments in the United States, CEO Oliver Blume said in an interview with a German newspaper on Friday, adding that tariff talks with the U.S. government were "fair" and "constructive". Several foreign companies have announced U.S. investments in response to President Donald Trump's import tariffs, but German carmakers have been more cautious about committing more resources to what is their biggest export market. Volkswagen's Audi brand, which has no production in the United States, is planning to produce some models in there, although the brand has said that the plan pre-dates the Trump administration. "So far, we have had absolutely fair, constructive discussions," Blume told Sueddeutsche Zeitung. "I was in Washington myself and we have been in regular dialogue ever since." Blume, who also leads Porsche AG as CEO, said Volkswagen's main contact in Washington was U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, adding he had agreed to keep any details of the discussions confidential. Sources told Reuters earlier this week that German carmakers including Volkswagen were in talks with Washington over a possible import tariff deal, seeking to use their U.S. investments and exports as leverage to soften any blow. Trump's trade war has cost companies more than $34 billion in lost sales and higher costs, according to a Reuters analysis of corporate disclosures, with companies pursuing various strategies to cope. Most of the tariffs were blocked by a U.S. trade court this week, but a federal appeals court has temporarily reinstated them to consider the Trump administration's appeal against the trade court's ruling. The 25% tariff imposed on auto imports earlier this year has not been affected by the rulings. Uncertainty worse than tariffs In a recent survey by Germany's Machinery and Equipment Manufacturers Association (VDMA), nearly three quarters of participants said uncertainty over U.S. trade policy had a strong impact on companies' competitiveness, while just 43% said the same for the 10% tariffs slapped on goods from most U.S. trading partners. "The uncertainty surrounding the U.S. tariffs is causing more problems in our sector than the tariffs themselves," Andrew Adair, VDMA's trade policy adviser for North America, told Reuters. "Uncertainty causes customers to delay purchasing decisions-including American companies that are motivated to purchase machinery to ramp up their local production." Asked what Blume was offering in the talks, which aim to reduce the 25% autos levy, he said: "The Volkswagen Group wants to invest further in the USA. We have a growth strategy." Blume said the Volkswagen Group already employed over 20,000 people directly and over 55,000 people indirectly in the United States, and highlighted a $5.8 billion investment in U.S. company Rivian. "We would build on this with further, massive investments," Blume said. Such investments should be factored into any decisions regarding tariffs, added Blume, who said he hoped Brussels and Washington would reach a broad deal for all industries. Blume declined to say when a deal with Washington could be struck, when asked about BMW CEO Oliver Zipse's assessment that tariffs would likely fall from July.
CNBC
5 days ago
- Automotive
- CNBC
Volkswagen flags 'massive' U.S. investments and says tariff talks constructive
Volkswagen wants to make more big investments in the United States, CEO Oliver Blume said in an interview with a German newspaper on Friday, adding that tariff talks with the U.S. government were "fair" and "constructive." Several foreign companies have announced U.S. investments in response to President Donald Trump's import tariffs, but German carmakers have been more cautious about committing more resources to what is their biggest export market. Volkswagen's Audi brand, which has no production in the United States, is planning to produce some models in there, although the brand has said that the plan pre-dates the Trump administration. "So far, we have had absolutely fair, constructive discussions," Blume told Sueddeutsche Zeitung. "I was in Washington myself and we have been in regular dialogue ever since." Blume, who also leads Porsche as CEO, said Volkswagen's main contact in Washington was U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, adding he had agreed to keep any details of the discussions confidential. Sources told Reuters earlier this week that German carmakers including Volkswagen were in talks with Washington over a possible import tariff deal, seeking to use their U.S. investments and exports as leverage to soften any blow. Trump's trade war has cost companies more than $34 billion in lost sales and higher costs, according to a Reuters analysis of corporate disclosures, with companies pursuing various strategies to cope. Most of the tariffs were blocked by a U.S. trade court this week, but a federal appeals court has temporarily reinstated them to consider the Trump administration's appeal against the trade court's ruling. The 25% tariff imposed on auto imports earlier this year has not been affected by the rulings. In a recent survey by Germany's Machinery and Equipment Manufacturers Association (VDMA), nearly three quarters of participants said uncertainty over U.S. trade policy had a strong impact on companies' competitiveness, while just 43% said the same for the 10% tariffs slapped on goods from most U.S. trading partners. "The uncertainty surrounding the U.S. tariffs is causing more problems in our sector than the tariffs themselves," Andrew Adair, VDMA's trade policy adviser for North America, told Reuters. "Uncertainty causes customers to delay purchasing decisions—including American companies that are motivated to purchase machinery to ramp up their local production." Asked what Blume was offering in the talks, which aim to reduce the 25% autos levy, he said: "The Volkswagen Group wants to invest further in the USA. We have a growth strategy." Blume said the Volkswagen Group already employed over 20,000 people directly and over 55,000 people indirectly in the United States, and highlighted a $5.8 billion investment in U.S. company Rivian RIVN.O. "We would build on this with further, massive investments," Blume said. Such investments should be factored into any decisions regarding tariffs, added Blume, who said he hoped Brussels and Washington would reach a broad deal for all industries. Blume declined to say when a deal with Washington could be struck, when asked about BMW CEO Oliver Zipse's assessment that tariffs would likely fall from July. "Of course, I also want it to happen quickly. But it depends on many factors and I can't promise anything."
Reuters
04-04-2025
- Business
- Reuters
German engineering firm braces for impact as US tariff wave hits
LAHNAU, Germany, April 4 (Reuters) - After 25 years of building industrial equipment in the United States, German engineering firm WIWA faces a dilemma that could completely reshape its transatlantic operations after President Donald Trump implemented sweeping duties on foreign imports. Though it manufactures many of its high-tech painting and coating products in the United States - a market accounting for a quarter of its sales - a 20% tariff on European goods announced by Trump Wednesday is set to drive up its costs. "We produce in America for the American market with core components that we export there from Europe. Of course, these are also affected by tariffs," WIWA's manager Malte Weber told Reuters at its headquarters in the small town of Lahnau, in the German state of Hesse. And so the 75-year-old family business, which markets its products as "almost 100% made in Germany", must now decide whether to go all-in to preserve its operations and market in the United States or scale back and hope for better times. It's not alone. The U.S. was Germany's biggest trading partner in 2024, according to the German government's statistics office, with 253 billion euros ($278 billion) worth of goods exchanged between the two nations. Engineering - a sector for which Germany is world renowned - is a big part of that. And many companies, like WIWA, have operations on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2024, Germany sold machinery and equipment worth 27.4 billion euros to the U.S., making it the sector's single-largest foreign market representing 13.7% of total exports, data from VDMA, an engineering industry lobby group, showed. Those companies are now preparing to take the brunt of Washington's tariff offensive, with almost 60% of them expecting to be heavily affected by the duties, a VDMA survey found. A FORK IN THE ROAD Trump's stated goal in imposing tariffs is to revitalise the United States' manufacturing sector and bring back jobs he and his allies say were lost during decades of global trade liberalisation. Weber thinks he may succeed. But the strategy has forced WIWA to reevaluate. "The issue is not easy for us to deal with in the long-term because, of course, the framework conditions can change permanently," he said. WIWA was committed to staying in the U.S. market and was examining how to do so, including the possibility of ramping up its operations there, Weber said. At the same time, however, company executives were also considering increasing their U.S. prices, reducing shipments or even cutting back on investment activity outright. Despite growing concerns over a deepening trade war that could trigger a global recession, Weber said he was hopeful for a solution and was counting on the European Union to come up with a proper response to the United States soon. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday, who called the U.S. tariffs a major blow to the world economy, said that the EU was prepared to respond with countermeasures if negotiations with Washington failed. She said the EU was already finalising a first package of tariffs on up to 26 billion euros of U.S. goods for mid-April in response to U.S. steel and aluminium tariffs that took effect last month. Whatever the European response ends up looking like, for Weber and his business, the crucial element will need to be clarity on the future, he said. "I hope that solutions can be found in cooperation with our European partners that can give companies a certain degree of planning security," he said. ($1 = 0.9093 euros)
