It seems Nissan cannot get out of its own way. If the first step is admitting you have a problem, the second step might be admitting how big of a problem you actually have. Nissan, as a company, seems incapable of doing this. A new report says this is one of the big reasons why the Nissan-Honda deal fell apart, though Honda has a part in this as well.
If the Honda deal is, in fact, dead, then it’s Foxconn who is likely to swoop in, though only as a friend. The “Foxconn in the henhouse” joke is right there if someone wants to take it.
Auto executives have tried, it seems, to be deferential to President Trump, and gave his inauguration committee a bunch of money. This doesn’t mean they’ll all hold their tongues. Ford CEO Jim Farley was clear yesterday that a long-term tariff against Mexico and Canada would be good for a lot of America’s competitors and bad for America.
Well, it wouldn’t be good for all European automakers. I’m not sure what Porsche would do.
Nissan, Unfortunately, Nissans It Up
I had such high hopes for the Nissan/Honda/Mitsubishi “Three Amigos” graphic. I thought that a Honda and Nissan partnership had a lot of promise. Honda is doing well as a company, in large part by successfully pivoting to hybrids and not over-indexing on EVs. Nissan did the opposite and is doing poorly.
Yet, Honda still remains small relative to the big global players (Toyota, GM, Stellantis, Hyundai-Kia) and could use more help. Nissan just flat-out needs a rescue. None of its brands are doing well in the United States, and the company as a whole has had to reduce its estimates of future profits by 70%.
Even worse for Nissan, Renault (the company’s French ex) still holds a decent chunk of Nissan shares it got in the divorce. Renault’s interest here is, first, to get a great share price and, second, to not inadvertently create a bigger competitor for itself in Europe. In fact, the whole reason this is happening at all is because the Japanese government found out that Taiwan’s Foxconn was talking to Renault about maybe buying its shares in Nissan (the current head of Foxconn’s auto unit is an ex-Nissan exec).
Confirming what we all suspected, a big report from Reuters says that the deal fell apart because of Nissan’s general intransigence. Honda, according to the report, thought that Nissan’s plans to cut jobs were too vague and too slow. Specifically, Reuters says that “Nissan’s pride and insufficient alarm about its predicament” helped sour Honda on the whole idea.
To make things worse, Nissan execs reportedly didn’t seem to want to fully close any plants or reduce its EV ambitions, including a new EV facility on the Japanese island of Kyushu. The report implies that the continued pursuit of Kyushu put a bad taste in the mouth of Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe. Why would Nissan be averse to closing plants or touching Kyushi?
Reuters could not determine whether Mibe’s move was triggered by Nissan’s announcements in Kyushu. Nevertheless, the Kyushu trip crystallized the tensions between the companies over the best way forward.
Kyushu was not the only plant that Nissan considered untouchable. Smyrna in Tennessee, Aguascalientes in Mexico and Britain’s Sunderland were all seen as critical to the company’s EV strategy, and the automaker did not want to close them or reduce their lines, one source said.
Nissan needs the company to be as valuable as possible in order to justify not being subordinate to Honda. Renault needs Nissan to be valuable to extract the highest share price, as mentioned earlier. Honda, reportedly upset over what it saw as Nissan’s inability to move quickly, just decided to tell Nissan it would only accept a deal where Nissan was basically a sub-brand of Honda.
Whether or not this was a poison pill is unclear, but Nissan clearly balked.
Was that a good move? One analyst that Reuters talked to doesn’t think so:
“I think it’s a management problem,” said Julie Boote, analyst at research firm Pelham Smithers Associates, about the turmoil at Nissan. “They are completely overestimating their position and their brand value, and their ability to turn around the business.”
[…]
“They do not have a realistic view of what’s happening in the auto industry and what really needs to happen with Nissan.”
What happens to Nissan next? It’s possible the company does manage to turn it around, though I don’t see what the path is.
Foxconn Is Here For You, Baby
You may know Foxconn as the Taiwanese company that makes iPhones. Or, maybe, as the company that now owns the old Lordstown, Ohio facility that was once a GM plant, and then a Lordstown Motors plant, and then a Foxconn-owned plant that was going to make Fiskers.
Either way, it has played this Nissan business quite well. First, reports say it spooked Nissan into an almost-merger with Honda by talking to Renault about buying Nissan shares. And, now that this deal has fallen apart, Foxconn is in a position to swoop in and be the good guy.
Here’s how the company is playing it, according to Nikkei Asia:
The chairman of Taiwan’s Foxconn said Wednesday that its aim is “not acquisition but cooperation,” confirming that his company had discussed Renault’s Nissan stake with the French car maker, Nissan’s largest shareholder.
Chairman Young Liu made the remarks to reporters at an event held at the company’s headquarters in the suburbs of Taipei, according to Central News Agency of Taiwan.
Liu expressed his wish to cooperate with Japanese automakers, including Nissan, through the design and manufacturing of electric vehicles on a contract basis, and his company has no plans to have its own automobile brand. Liu also said that he expects to have good news within a month or two regarding the EV business.
That is smooth. Knowing fully now that Nissan is afraid of a takeover, Foxconn can offer “cooperation” and soothe Renault by implying it isn’t going to make its own car brand. Will this end with Foxconn buying a lot of Nissan? Possibly!
Tariffs Would ‘Blow A Hole In The U.S. Industry That We’ve Never Seen’ Says Farley
Ford CEO Jim Farley says out loud what everyone in the industry seems to believe, which is that a long-term 25% tariff on goods that cross into America from Canada or Mexico wouldn’t end well for most carmakers.
Farley is going to D.C. to talk to politicians, and here’s his warm-up act, via the Detroit Free Press:
While Trump has talked about strengthening the U.S. auto industry, which would be a signature accomplishment, “So far what we’re seeing is a lot of cost and a lot of chaos,” Farley said.
“Let’s be real honest: Long term, a 25% tariff across the Mexico and Canada borders would blow a hole in the U.S. industry that we’ve never seen,” Farley said. “Frankly, it gives free rein to South Korean, Japanese and European companies that are bringing 1.5 million to 2 million vehicles into the U.S. that wouldn’t be subject to those Mexican and Canadian tariffs. It would be one of the biggest windfalls for those companies ever.”
This does make sense to me. Generations of Republicans and Democrats, including President Trump in his first term, have encouraged companies to build cars across the border. This sudden reversal will, at least in the short term, be good for Japanese and South Korean automakers who have a bigger footprint in the United States and in their home countries. The same is probably true for European automakers like BMW and Mercedes.
That doesn’t mean all European automakers would be winners.
Porsche Would Take A Big Hit From An Anti-European Tariff
Volkswagen and, in particular, Porsche, are stuck trying to balance out competing messages from China and the United States. Complicating matters for Porsche, as Bloomberg reports, is that it doesn’t make any cars in the United States.
Could Porsche just shift production here? Ehh…
Chief Executive Officer Oliver Blume can ill afford the major investment that moving production around would require. Porsche is falling further off track from targets floated when the company staged one of Europe’s biggest-ever initial public offerings in 2022. Its return on sales will slump to as low as 10% this year, half of what management once touted as a long-term target.
That downbeat outlook sent Porsche shares tumbling 7% on Friday to a new low since the IPO. At €50.8 billion ($52.4 billion), the company is now worth less than half its peak market value in May 2023.
Good luck with that one.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
I don’t know why, but “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” by Meatloaf with Ellen Foley is the perfect song for February 12th. Just trust me.
The Big Question
If you’re a car CEO and you can build a plant anywhere in the world, where do you do it?
Top photo: The Naked Gun
Why doesn’t Big Jimbo Farley become better friend with Donnie from Queens? That way, when Donnie has an epiphany around hole 12, and decides to belligerently manipulate the market again, which some sort of wild “House of Cards” meets “Weekend at Beanie’s” plan. Then Jim could join his other friends in formally called Insider Trading, now called The Infinite Money Glitch. Then he can use the money from basically typing in “Rosebud” to game over and over again, to buy a very large pool and slides the River Rouge facility. Then Ford can stop making cars and just rebrand as a Waterpark. Then tariffs don’t matter. Because you can’t tariff the joy of a child sliding down Metro Detroit’s largest water slide @ The Ford River Rouge Splash Zone!
Take it from a Wisconsinite: Foxconn is just that: a con. Then again, perhaps they would build them in their mostly vacant, overpriced, taxpayer funded Mount Pleasant , WI facility. Not holding my breath. My guess is that Foxconn snags the shares, wrestles control of the corp and sells it off in pieces. Stage 4 Capitalism baby, gotta love it.
I would build a plant at 1101 S. Ocean Blvd., Palm Beach, Florida and wait for the day The orange god closes the EPA.
eminent domain that shithole and turn it into a park for LBGTQ and DEI “rejects”. Install as many wind turbines and Burger Kings as possible.
If you’re a car CEO and you can build a plant anywhere in the world, where do you do it?
I want a peaceful, stable country with relatively low labor costs, favorable trade policies, plentiful raw materials & energy resources to feed & power my factories and an established trade infrastructure to ship my products around the world – plus good weather, great food & nice beaches.
Vinfast has the right idea – as Vietnam has all these attributes – and if I needed a nearby backup country to produce some of my parts, I’d go with Thailand.
Yeah well, I saw the VInfast SUV at the Chicago show yesterday. $70,000? And it looked like a generic POS
Yeah well, I wasn’t answering the question “What $70,000 SUV from a relatively obscure manufacturer would you most want to buy?”
Vietnam was my first thought, but I would absolutely do anything I could to not build a new plant as long as there is a major politician who might slap 25% or 50% or 10% tariffs on a country whenever he gets a funny feeling in his left nut. I wouldn’t dare build in the US either, because the rest of the world will target retaliatory measures against stuff made in the US. Too much uncertainty everywhere.
The big thing w/ Vietnam is they are a major trading partner w/ China – So you’d gain access to the Chinese market as well as Non-US Western markets without the “Made in China” stigma.
Because if things continue as recent weeks and the new administration’s goals prove – the US in coming years will be much reduced economically such that it’s market won’t matter all that much.
Brasil may meet most of that as well in this hemisphere. Australia too.
Brasil still has high import tariffs – making it not so great for trade.
Which is why VW has it’s own factories and separate model lines there.
Australia is quite good – however their issues are greater distance to major markets and higher labor costs.
Momxico! Canadad! Don’t make me choose!
What it sounds like Farley is gonna want to do is try and get US-based manufacturers exempted from tariffs but have them still apply to the European and East Asian makers. Which I could totally see happening, regardless of how many tens of thousands of people and billions of dollars they contribute to the US economy.
Nissan pride today is like military intelligence, an oxymoron.
I’d build my car factory in Iceland. Lots of cheap geothermal energy on tap, so I could save on that and blather on about a lower carbon footprint, lots of new tech development headed there for same reason, relatively cheap labor force, (for now), half the shipping costs to either US or Europe. Made in Iceland just sounds cool (pun intended).
Meatloaf captures America’s feelings toward US automakers. To paraphrase:
We want you, we need you, but there ain’t no way we’re ever gonna love you.
MILITARY INTELLIGENCE, TWO WORDS COMBINED THAT CAN’T MAKE SENSE!
Possibly I’ve seen too much, Hangar 18 I know too much!
*like 7 fuckin sick guitar solos*
I leave answering TBQ to others today – I just want to jump in and say that today’s top shot is chef’s-kiss perfection. A top shot that I can hear in my head. “Nothing to see here, move along…”
Out of curiosity, did DT have any idea where the original image came from?
More importantly, the tariffs on aluminum are also going to have a major impact on the craft beer industry.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/12/economy/craft-beer-aluminum-steel-tariffs/index.html
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-tariffs-beer-prices-steel-aluminum-2029179
Can’t just use glass bottles?
Maybe. Changing production lines designed for cans over to glass bottles is still a significant investment. Not to mention changing all the labeling, packaging, transportation, shelf space…
They’re completely different filling and manufacturing equipment. So that’ll take a while.
But, long term, a returnable glass bottle strategy might be the best strategy. Similar as used in Canada or Germany.
I’ve spent enough time collecting and returning bottles in Canada to say f’ that.
Fun fact: Germany’s recycled bottle program was a big reason why Stone Brewing ended up failing in Germany. They couldn’t get their hands on enough bottles, so they tried cans, and Germany’s anti-can bias is WAYYYY stronger than the US’s circa 2012 or so.
I get that – and glass bottles cost more to ship.
But you can charge more – because it’s “Craft Beer”.
Oh, and the labeling for all alcoholic beverages requires federal approval. So if you change from cans to bottles, the packaging for you entire product line needs to be reapproved as well.
Reapproved by a federal government that’s in the process of firing everyone involved in regulations like that. So it’s guaranteed to take 10x longer than usual!
See – Government Doesn’t Work!!
Sigh – that tracks too… Regulation often fails where the rubber actually hits the road. Too few subject matter experts to actually transition smoothly and too little knowledge.
OSHA, NHTSA, FAA, NRC, FRP, EPA, etc… have done a LOT of good for this country. It has also been far from easy and a lot is still under interpretation. Corporations will get away with what they can.
Honestly, it’s probably just making sure that all of the required stuff like the Surgeon General’s Warning is included and legible.
More expensive and require different packaging equipment.
Most craft breweries operate on razor margins anyway.
There was, coincidentally, a can shortage in 2018/2019 as well.
I predict glass bombers and growlers will be worth a lot more soon.
Or just use your Yeti.
If places allow it. Although most do these days.
“The CANS! He hates these CANS!!”
–that one movie about Trump
Everyone, we’re gonna’ shut it down for today. Ash78 just won the internet. We’ll be back tomorrow with another edition.
Craft beer industry is already circling the drain. There has been a lot of consolidation in the past year or two. This won’t help, but it won’t be ‘the’ reason for the downfall.
I’m not in a city, but my out of shape ass could ride a bike to seven craft breweries (and a craft winery). It would have been nine last year before a couple of consolidations.
It’s definitely contracting and it was due for a correction. But we don’t need to help it along.
It’s tough time to be peddling booze, what with Dry January, the, “No amount of alcohol consumption is good,” news, Ozempic taming cravings, etc.
It’s always a good time to peddle booze. Baseball is starting.
And let’s face it, lot of microbreweries/craft beer makers didn’t make particularly good beer.
After customers buy a few disappointing $20 four packs, they move on to something else.
I forgot how good the stage presence of Meat Loaf was. Some singers have singing ability and others excel with a stage show. He does both with flare.
Our president seems to think that the current trade agreement with Mexico and Canada is so outrageously bad that he needs to impose these tariffs. Boy, I wish I could remember who it was that negotiated that agreement.
Oh, it’s not the trade, per se…it’s the drugs. Apparently.
I know NAFTA was a bit of a mess, but the idea of a single continent with just 3 mostly-peaceful countries working in relateive unity is one of the greatest attainable concepts on earth. Natural water barriers, the Arctic, the Darien Gap…natural protections. Between the three of us, we could become basically self-sufficient, with fair- or free-trade carveouts for certain friendly countries in Europe, India, etc.
I just don’t see the US being able to pretend to be isolationist with our immense appetites for everything.
Oh it’s the drugs alright. I just wish it was easier to identify which one(s) he’s taking.
Meth, or a close analog.
Drugs and DEI, the only reasons needed to completely explode the universe with change no one really wants once it is realized what is going on. The hard part is getting people to realize what really going on.
Exactly. Reaching people with meaningful and factual information seems impossible these days. I’m not sure I see a way out of that situation.
Especially when there’s a significant portion of the populace who will only believe information from their trusted sources.
This is the opening of an article in a local conservative newspaper:
Welcome to the “fundamental transformation of America” promised by Barack Hussein Obama, the black Muslim terrorist elected by well-meaning people who care too much about skin color. They thought they were electing a “bro,” not a Muslim communist from Indonesia who hates America. (Warren P. Russo)
Please tell me that’s a joke. There is no way that is the opening of any article in a newspaper.
From the sound of it, that entire rag is a joke.
The Onion, that famous conservative newspaper.
That is absolutely legitimate, and that was the author’s name.
Further down on the page was something about how another writer considered himself to be ‘diversity’ because he has different ideas than other old white people.
“Well-meaning people?” I’m pleasantly surprised that he didn’t call us godless, un-American coastal dredge that in no way share Real American Heartland Values (TM.)
I’m surprised he didn’t say “Bless your heart”, or did he???
You have to be south of the Mason-Dixon line to understand the true meaning.
I’ve been listening to a LOT of comedy on my commute. They regularly talk about the “true meaning” of the term, and hence why I suggested it. Did I do it right?? (I’m not from the south)
I think you understand the concept.
BTW the sweetest true southern belles I ever knew,
(wife and MIL) both used the expression constantly.
They both had that ability to tell you to fuck off, with a kind smile…true southern women get it.
Bless your heart. /s
BTW have you heard Rodney Carrington’s
Wal Mart greeter bit?
It seems like he is a coastal elite. He has an MBA from Boston College. This paper is based in MA and his linkedin says he writes for the Newburyport News as well.
Newburyport’s median home value is ~$800k and the median household income is about double the national average.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/warren-russo-70a07871/
That is the author’s linkedin. The piece was in the Boston Broadside, which does not appear to have any online presence I can really link to but does produce a physical printed newspaper.
Just wow, read a few of his comments on Linkedin. Match his opening paragraph perfectly.
I hadn’t read them. Then I did. Now I wish I hadn’t.
Free trade between the US and Mexico is a giant handout to US corporations and a giant FU to US workers. Being OK with these tariffs feels a little like being OK with Hitler because I like trains running on time, but still.
He who pardoned the founder of Silk Road has no right whatsoever to complain about drugs.
I know them as the cheap bastards who made all of those DeLL motherboards that killed themselves from the Windows Vista era onwards. I’ve never seen electrolytic leakage like I have from a Foxconn board. It’s astonishing how bad it is.
Only Hyundai and Kia would really benefit, actually. Nissan, Honda, and Toyota all import a good chunk of their steel and aluminum unibody parts, engines, transmissions, and electronics. Many Honda vehicles are assembled using parts made in Japan that then get shipped to Ohio, Indiana, and Alabama. Nissan and Toyota grab shit from all over, including Japan, eastern Europe, and India. All three would have more overall costs because of the total number of individual parts that would get tariffed.
Meanwhile the Koreans have much fewer parts to import because the won is too unpredictable, so when they don’t do all the forging and assembly in the U.S. they either ship over mostly finished or fully finished vehicles and just take the hit on those. Paying $1,200 a vehicle when a ship has seventy two of them on board is cheaper than paying $400 per shipping container of ten engines when there are fifty six containers on board. That’s $86,400 paid per ship versus $224,000 paid per ship.
Also who spells it Kyushu? I’ve only ever seen it spelled Kyushuu unless you’re using the phonetic accent spelling of Kyūshū, where the accented ū is supposed to represent the two Us.
That’s odd. I regularly read online editions of The Mainichi and Asahi Shimbun and both spell it Kyushu.
I don’t see the Canada/Mexico tariffs becoming a long term thing. It’d just be too much of a direct impact to prices of so many goods, and a big part of his platform was lowering prices.
The steel and aluminum tariffs are a more likely threat as he’s done it before. And will likely be even more painful in the long run, as those raw materials are inputs for so many goods. There have been studies done on the impact of the last round of tariffs and it was a hugely negative impact, costing something like $900k per job in steel/aluminum production created. Its just a sneakier way to do things since it takes time for the higher costs of those raw material inputs to get passed on in finished goods.
What he really cares about is making money for himself/his cronies. He’s a multi-millionaire real estate guy from Manhattan. He does not care if blue collar people can afford groceries. He’ll do whatever makes his ilk richer.
Especially since this is his second term which, as of now, would be his last meaning he doesn’t need to care about getting re-elected. He doesn’t give a shit about what us common folk think about him so now it’s open season on deregulation and making moves to get him and his friends even more sickeningly rich.
Well if they sink the economy and the values of the last few things we own tanks, they can scoop up the rest of the assets in USA for pennies on the dollar. Conspiracy rabbit hole? Guess we will see pretty soon.
I think you mean nickels on the dollar 😀
trying to think of the last time I actually saw either….Quarters, yes for the Aldi shopping cart rentals, so maybe quarters on the dollar?
Ha, well was referencing the recent proposal to get rid of the penny thus requiring stores to theoretically round to the nearest nickel.
True, but then when you add a sales tax that has a fraction it will not always go to either 0 or 5! So then ……..
Round up of course. It’s just the same as it is now.
2.5 cents becomes 5 cents, 2.499999 cents become non-cents just as .5 cents become 1 cent and .4999 becomes non-cents. (I liked non-cents better than zero cents just because).
So if I bought something for say $2.05 (using your round up method)and with my 13 cent sales tax in my state the total would be $2.18 . The regulation is based on percentage, not rounded values. I would pay $2.18 not $2.20, right?
Couldn’t do as bad as the guy the last 4 years screwed it up.
There’s been four plane crashes in a month since your king took over and started gutting federal agencies because he’s scared of trans people, FYI.
You’ve obviously never worked in government if you think change happens in a month with them, lol.
What color is the sky in your world?
Nissan literally means “Made in Japan.”
For it to be swallowed whole by their former colonial subjects is just so satisfying.
It doesn’t, though.
JLR 2.0
If the point of the tariff is to encourage domestic production, then hurting ‘American’ brands who produce outside of the US is appropriate. (This sentence represents more thought than was put into these tariff threats, but whatever.)
As far as Korean brands go, aren’t a lot of them produced in the US? I don’t know the split, but I’d have to think their goal is not to ship complete vehicles if they can avoid it.
I remember from the last go-round with tariff threats that BMW is a net exporter of vehicles in the US.
Nissan should build a factory in South Dakota.
.
(In the old days people in Japan would kill themselves over being a fuck up rather than losing face to others.)
Can then request Kristi Noem to put the co. and executive weasels out of their misery and shame.
Seriously though. Build new factory in the Gulf of America. Run it off wind turbines and abandoned crude leaking oil platforms for free.
So, you’re equating Nissan’s management to misbehaving hunting dogs?
Okay, yeah, I can kinda see that.
Most of Nissan’s debt is unsecured, they have $20 billion in assets, is there a chance they could, say, take out a really long term secured loan package backed by all their assets and use that to pay off the bulk of their current debt, buy time to complete a restructuring, and hope they turn themselves around in time to pay down the new loans? I mean, they do own a lot of valuable stuff, patents, trademarks, real estate, equipment, etc
This basically what Ford did in 2007 or 2008, later famously avoiding a bailout because they “mortgaged the Blue Oval”
I haven’t touched as much on “what Nissan does next” because Nissan is so unclear about this. The above is possible and did work for Ford, but it’s not like there’s a production capacity problem in a lot of places. If anything, there’s more production capacity than demand (other than for Toyota).
It also needs to be said that Ford was doing this on the precipice of a huge and existential crisis for the industry and economy as a whole, which decidedly does not seem like the case today.
A merger or buyout makes a ton of sense in a way that wasn’t really possible for Ford in 2008.
They didn’t take a bailout, but they did take billions from the government in return for a promise to use the money to invest in development of EVs and other advanced tech, which they did not do. Oh yeah, they didn’t have to pay it back either.
Ford received $92.7 million in retooling and R&D grants that did not have to be repaid, but that wasn’t really a hugely consequential amount for them
In comparison, General Motors ended up with a net of $11.2 billion in free money that did not have to be repaid, Chrysler’s final total was $1.3 billion
My sources have Ford receiving $6 billion in grants and loans in 2009 from the government, far less than the other two, but still significant, though I’m wrong that they didn’t have to repay at least part of that, which they are still struggling to do.
The remainder was loans which were repaid with interest by 2011, $92.7 million was the portion that did not have to be repaid
Yep, Enterprise Value is underappreciated here. The Nissan name might not be Ford, but they’re a worldwide brand — the debt for companies like this usually appear to be unsecured, but the creditors ultimately get to own the brand if things go south (the hard part is how much brand value is lost DURING those miserable final years).
Can Honda buy the corpse of Canoo now? While no longer cutting edge EV tech, it’s still better than having GM build your EVs.
Agree
The Prologue was a one-off thing – I’m pretty sure it was just to put their dealership network to the test. Honda is working on their own EVs from this point on.
They can have my three cents of shares for a penny!
What happens to Nissan next? It’ll somehow continue to operate just like that beat to shit and back Altima going 95 mph through a school zone until the CVT rapidly self-destructs
Maybe they should merge with Big Lots?
I’m already picturing an Altima halfway through a plate glass window in a strip mall.
You forgot to mention the donut spare it’s riding on, but this is correct
In my area the Altima and lack of access to cash-credit can lead to some creative thinking.
Have actually seen several Altimas rolling on the donut spare, like a daily thing here.
But the cool guys just roll on 4 donuts at the same time.
The burnouts are epic.
And that’s what we call Big Altima Energy, my brother in Christ
This whole saga brings new meaning to the phrase “to Infiniti and beyond”.
Oh no! The “foreign” car makers with plants in the US will have an advantage over the “American” companies that make their cars in Mexico!
Boofuckinghoo
Not exactly. Those foreign car plants in the US are still going be paying the tax on the steel they use. The winners are anyone that builds a car outside the US.
Unless they source their sheet from US Steel, Cleveland Cliffs, Nippon Steel/Arcelor Mittal’s plant in Alabama, Steel Dynamics, etc
The US does still produce steel, which will be used in the US when there are tariffs on foreign steel.
But is it enough to meet demand? Probably not. And those prices are going to go up as well because a) demand will increase and b) because they can.
Prices aren’t set by how much something costs to produce, but how much people are willing to pay. And in this case, domestic steel prices will go up to meet the new price of foreign steel. Because they can.
Just like it did last time. There isn’t even an unexpected consequence argument to be made here because we already did this dance.
Most of the steel produced in the US comes from melting scrap in an electric arc furnace. Melting a mixture of rusted building materials and food cans does not produce steel of high enough quality to use in things like cars and bridges, until “virgin steel” is added to the mixture. Probably easier to pay the tariff and continue to import this component and pass the cost on to customers. When imported metal only makes up 20% of the mixture, 25% tariffs are not going to cause an unreasonably large price increase in the final product.
It’s been wild to see Nissan blunder so hard over the course of my life. Infiniti was very popular when I was in high school between their SUVs and the G35/37, the Maxima was “the sedan you get with some oomf,” and GT-R was a halo car everyone wanted, and the 350/370z were attainable sports cars that were really solid.
Most automakers would kill to capitalize on something like that.
I feel like the renaming of Infiniti cars was the first sign of things to go downhill.
“make buyers think it’s new by using a new name”
No one boasted of having a Q60/Q70 like they did of having a G35.
True story! Nissan had so much brand capitol in the ’90s and somehow drove it off the cliff in the last 20+ years.
I was thinking the other day about how many cool cars they used to make and at various times I considered buying: ’76, ’84, ’93 Z cars, shopped for an early ’90s Maxima SE or Sentra SE-R, and nearly bought a ’96 Pathfinder. A couple of good friend’s first cars were
’80s Nissans. Even now I sometimes wonder if I should try to find a clean 350Z before they’re all wrecked. Modern Nissan is so meh, not even sure who buys them anymore.
Still no mention of the 25% tariff on ALL steel and aluminum coming March 12th?
Also this will be a fun scenario: “U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports would pile on top of other levies on Canadian goods, resulting in a total 50% tariff if threatened duties on all imports from Canada are enacted in March, a White House official said on Tuesday.”
I’m waiting for another one of those last minute “thanks to my incredible negotiating skills with myself, I have delayed the tariffs for another 6 months” type announcements.
The grift that keeps on grifting
Ah the old scam of the month club
Yes, 100%. It’s the closest thing we have to the Jedi Mind Trick, and the fact that Trump partially controls the media will ensure it’s glossed over (the real media will be screaming, but it’s never enough)
What exactly is “real media” in your opinion?
10 years ago my answer would have been different, but today I see it as:
Truth Social, Fox News, OANN
and
Real Media
We can fight amongst ourselves once the grip of the first three has been loosened 🙂
What kind of grip is that? I can’t say that I’ve ever seen more than a screen shot, or a quick video on the first two, and have never seen or heard anything from OANN. In my view, you’d have to actively go out of your way to hate watch any of that, lol
I considered it, as well as an update on US Steel, but it’s a little unclear what is or isn’t going to actually happen.
“If you’re a car CEO and you can build a plant anywhere in the world, where do you do it?”
Wherever is willing to put the most money into my personal parachute.
That my friend is how you CEO
As if it wasn’t already clear that Trump has very little concept of business, Farley is laying it out for everyone to…ignore.
I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to beat this drum: The biggest revelation I’ve had in Trump’s presidencies is that, for a guy who was elected largely on the strength of his business acumen (which itself is largely a farce), he sure doesn’t talk much about business. Or real estate. Or fixing things in general.
He’s like the exact opposite of a Ross Perot, or even GWB or Mitt Romney or any number of former Republicans who ran on their business cred.
Hey, remember when people made fun of W for being dumb? I miss those days. Oh, how I miss them.
The character Trump played on The Apprentice was who was elected president.
Most people never knew about or have forgotten his actual business record from the 80s.
I found that surprising. I thought everyone saw him as a punch line.
I am not a political strategist, and certainly don’t have my finger on the pulse of america.
He is a punch line, and even most of his voters know that, but for a variety of reasons he still appeals to them on a level almost completely divorced from his political stances. I.e. he “talks tough” and therefore won’t be taken advantage of by other countries, he is “rich enough not to be corrupted by lobbyists like every other politician” and so on.
It need not be true for it to be a compelling story.
We are in the real estate business in NYC and have relationship with the biggest names in the field.
Trump Organization isn’t a big name.
Trump is the ideal Republican president per Grover Norquiest ““We know what direction to go. We just need a president to sign this stuff. Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to be president of the United States.”
His name was Ronald Reagan
At least Reagan knew who our real enemies are.
The working class?
US citizens who disagreed with him?
Poor people defiantly living outside of prisons?
Critical thinking skills?
The poor people of color that became addicted to the drugs he flooded inner cities with and the LGBTQ community?
Why must opposable thumbs be a part of it?! That severely limits the talent pool 🙂
Every day I sit back amazed at how the intelligence in government seems to decline the higher up you go.
peter principle
A right to work state in the Southern or Central US.
Tariff bluster and unpredictable leadership aside, you’re unlikely to find a place with the combination of weak labor rights, reasonably low tax rates, and robust Western corporate protections anywhere else.
Plus easy access to a large market, developed transportation infrastructure, likely state/local tax breaks wherever you go, and the choice seems pretty obvious.
Yep, it’s been working pretty well down here for a while. Mercedes dodged the UAW for decades by, you know, doing the right thing for employees (until the UAW finally got entrenched enough in the younger workers’ psyches to finally get some traction). I’m not anti-union, I’m just anti-UAW…Mercedes was a good example of a company that paid better wages and benefits than competing machine/manufacturing shops that HAD union representation. That’s why they were largely considered a success in AL, and still going strong — depending on estimates, the controversial tax breaks in the 90s have been recouped several times over, and still are the basic blueprint for most Sunbelt factories.
Throughout my career, one thing has held true: if I need a union, then I need a union, and if I don’t need a union, then I don’t need a union.
My wife got laid off on Friday after 4 years with no warning, severance, or prior discipline. Not only did she need a union, she needed a W-2 instead of a 1099. Scummy business people are scummy. Yes, I’m contacting attorneys, plus the IRS and DOL (if Musk doesn’t shut it down first…)
This is why big companies like the South, non-union/right to work states.
And that will start to disappear now that the cost-of-living advantage is disappearing (mostly due to housing).
My wife’s situation was just getting involved with an entrepreneur and a 1099 situation (like so many Uber drivers, etc)…even though she was required to do normal “employee tasks.” That sh*t happens everywhere and it’s enough to make me want to go to law school just to help end it.
Yeah, companies will do anything to avoid having regular full-time employees on payroll.
Fairhope/Daphne resident here.
The whole situation like you and your wife are going thru is standard operating procedure here for a shit ton of employers.
I remember my wife coming home with a decent job, and a smile on her face one day, after many years of that BS.
Of course it became a salaried position which then entitled her to 60 hour work weeks.
Wish you guys all the luck with this crap.
UAW (and police unions) is the union other unions hate for giving all unions a bad name. Protecting corrupt leaders, stealing dues and cozying up to the management.
It’s doable and IMO preferable for a cooperative, collaborative environment. But both the union members and management have to work at it.
This is true, you can add AFSCME as well. And teacher’s unions.
So, because of the UAW existing, Mercedes had to do the right things by the employees
Combine two into one, Nissan has their largest US operations here in Middle Tennessee and are potentially cutting shifts/production due to their troubles. Huge regional employer especially if you include the lower tier suppliers. They have technically never done layoffs here. Previous union attempts have not succeeded.