The Trump administration has announced a new 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports into the United States, potentially driving up the cost of a variety of products. So, what could this mean for an appliance maker like Whirlpool?
We asked Dr. Brian Long, the Director of Supply Management at the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University. Long says Whirlpool does, in fact, use a lot of steel.
“What may happen as a result of this to companies like Whirlpool is they may see their cost of steel go up some, but we have to come back and say to what extent is steel a part of the process, the production process,” Long said. “For Whirlpool, obviously it’s significant, and if you look at the obvious company in Grand Rapids, Steelcase, it’s quite a lot.”
Long says automakers are also likely to be affected. So, what exactly will this mean?
“What is the impact on Whirlpool? We don’t know for sure yet, but it may be something that will have to be absorbed.”
By “absorbed,” Long said he means prices for consumers could go up, or the company will just have to take the hit.
Long says he’s still not expecting a recession for the next six months but tells us the tariff question makes things beyond that murky. He says they could disrupt the market enough to push us into a recession.
However, Long is not necessarily against the tariffs. Long says the U.S. steel industry has disappeared as China took over the market, producing more than half of the world’s supply. Long says Trump is trying to right the ship after decades of the country selling itself off piece by piece.
We’ve reached out to Whirlpool to ask how the company will be affected by tariffs, but it’s not commenting.
