Last month there was a snippet of news about layoffs at Whirlpool in the US and this was reportedly just some administrative jobs and not a lot so no big deal.
But could it be that Whirlpool is reorganising a bit in the wake of Trump imposing tariffs as, after all, they use a lot of steel with one economist saying:
“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. For Whirlpool, obviously it’s significant, and if you look at the obvious company in Grand Rapids, Steelcase, it’s quite a lot.”
Leaving Whirlpool (along with anyone else manufacturing in the US) with little options other than to either absorb the costs, which is going to be really tough in such a price-sensitive, low-margin business or, pass those costs onto consumers.
We’d doubt that cutting a few admin staff will offset the implications of 25% tariffs!
Even worse news for Whirlpool, among many others, is the tariffs on goods moving from Mexico into the USA, as Whirlpool has six manufacturing facilities in South America, according to their website, and anything from Mexico is going to get hammered with tariffs of 25%.
Just a few years ago, in 2023, Whirlpool invested more than $160 million into a plant in Mexico to produce 300,000 units a year specifically for the US market.
Trump’s tariffs are not good news for Whirlpool, not US buyers, it would seem.
But Whirlpool reportedly don’t see the tariff having much of an impact with a statement saying:
“This is not the first time that Whirlpool Corporation is operating in an environment that we have to face tariffs. And as you look back, even five to 10 years of our history pre-COVID, you would see that we’ve always been able to manage through that tariff environment, either through the contracts that we already have or through assessing the business and understanding what we need to do from a cost-based pricing standpoint.”
But this didn’t stop Whirlpool’s share price from dropping by 9% this week as investors think tariffs will indeed have a negative effect on the company so, there’s that. And that was before the US markets went nuts after Trump did a thing.
Plus, if the US economy is squeezed and people stop moving home, etc, that’s even worse news for not just Whirlpool but all appliance makers in the US.
