The auto industry — targeted by President Donald Trump — is taking the brunt of the slowdown in demand, according to IHS Markit’s latest monthly survey. Overall manufacturing in the euro area grew the slowest pace in two years in September and new export orders failed to rise for the first time since 2013.
Markit’s comments echoes concerns voiced by European car manufacturers, who are particularly vulnerable to sustaining collateral damage in the trade-war salvos between the U.S. and China. But there are broader effects, with the OECD saying this week that global growth may have hit a plateau.
That warning came the same week that the U.S.-China trade war deepened, with Beijing saying it will retaliate against President Donald Trump’s order for more tariffs on imports from the Asian nation.
Trade tensions are “a real and true concern for our business because we’re always thinking of long-term cycles,” Daimler AG CEO for trucks Martin Daum said this week. “We depend on long-term stability.”
