Welcome to the Daily 5 report for Friday, March 21.
Among the plethora of stories we've produced about President Donald Trump's tariffs, we have this highly detailed report today about what new border duties would mean to Ford Motor Co.'s Super Duty trucks, written by Greg Layson of Automotive News Canada.
The story says Ford produced nearly 400,000 F-Series Super Duty pickups at two U.S. plants in 2024. And all their engines came from Canada or Mexico. That now has the makings of a costly problem for the automaker, Layson wrote.
We can run any number of statistics to show the impact of the 25 percent U.S. tariffs on Ford or other automakers, but Layson's story has one example that illustrates the magnitude of this potential supply chain crisis.
Unifor Local 200 President John D'Agnolo, who represents about 2,000 hourly employees at the Ford engine plants in Windsor, Ontario, estimated that each truckload of engines crossing the U.S. would face $75,000 in duties if they were transported over the border under a 25 percent levy. One trailer holds 45 Super Duty engines or 66 5.0-liter engines, our story says.
That's $75,000 per truck — times the number of trucks (8,900) needed to haul 400,000 engines. Back of the envelop math says that equals about $667 million.
They are key to assembly at Ford plants in Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio, which employ almost 20,000 workers combined. Without the parts, those plants grind to a halt.
Want to know what keeps Ford Executive Chair Bill Ford and CEO Jim Farley awake at night? It's a good bet this kind of liability might.
This story by John Irwin also tells more about the rising sense of alarm among automakers over the tariffs. Some executives told Irwin that the tariffs could eclipse the supply chain chaos during the pandemic and semiconductor shortage, which paralyzed global auto production and led to tens of millions of vehicle cuts worldwide.
Also in the world of suppliers, the U.S. auto industry for decades demonstrated a commitment to working with minority-owned businesses. But Kurt Nagl of Crain's Detroit Business today reports that some of these efforts are quietly falling apart along with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in corporate America.
Notably, Nagl wrote that since 2012, the Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s Rainbow PUSH Coalition scored the diversity efforts of automakers in areas such as employment, procurement and dealership composition. The nonprofit sought to hold companies accountable for steady improvement in those areas.
The group's Automotive Diversity Scorecard did exactly as it was designed to do, but it has run its course, John Graves, chairman of Rainbow PUSH's automotive program, told Crain's Detroit, an affiliate of Automotive News.
"The report card is being retired to the hall of fame for a job well done," Graves said. "There's not a company that has not improved over the last several years."
In other news today, General Motors is poised to produce the next Cadillac presidential SUV limousine, according to Reuters. The head of the U.S. Secret Service met with GM executives this week in Michigan. The Secret Service said on social media platform X that Director Sean Curran met with GM "to discuss advancements that could benefit the next generation of armored SUVs." The posting included a picture of the vehicle.
The Homeland Security Department and Secret Service awarded GM a $14.8 million contract for development of the next-generation presidential limousine nicknamed "The Beast" that could be worth up to $40.8 million through 2029.
That's it for today. Have a great weekend.
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— Philip Nussel, online editor
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