JCB has warned it could lose “hundreds of millions of pounds” after the US government unexpectedly extended tariffs on steel and aluminium to cover finished goods, dealing a blow to one of Britain’s best-known engineering firms.
The Trump administration confirmed on Monday that the 25 per cent tariffs already applied to components would now include all machines exported to the US containing steel or aluminium. The move is expected to hit every one of the 30,000 diggers and construction vehicles JCB ships across the Atlantic each year.
Graeme Macdonald, JCB’s chief executive, described the measures as “hugely punitive” and said they would force the company to rethink its North American strategy. “The tariffs as they now stand are hugely punitive and they catch every machine that we ship to the US,” he said. “It will make us have to reconsider how we trade with North America.”
The impact dwarfs earlier forecasts. JCB had anticipated a $3 million hit under the previously flagged tariff regime, but now expects losses in the hundreds of millions. Particularly galling for the Staffordshire-based manufacturer is that the tariffs will also apply to a $45 million contract it secured last week to supply backhoe loaders to the US Marine Corps.
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