Europe's car exporters are struggling with uncertainty over US tariffs despite last month's trade deal, Wallenius Wilhelmsen, the operator of one of the world's largest car carrier fleets, told Reuters on Tuesday.
The US and EU struck a trade deal in late July that saw US import tariffs on most goods from Europe, including cars, set at 15%. Cars had initially faced a 27.5% levy after US President Donald Trump hiked tariffs this year.
However, the new 15% rate has not yet been implemented for cars, meaning Wallenius customers such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo Cars continue to face the higher rate.
The absence of an executive order from Trump lowering the autos tariff has left the industry holding its breath for potential last-minute changes.
"So far we do not know exactly what the tariff level will be. Our customers do not know either, so it is too early to say what they'll do," Wallenius CEO Lasse Kristoffersen said after the company's quarterly results.
While carmakers raced earlier this year to ship cars to the US ahead of the tariff hike to 27.5%, the opposite happened at the start of the second quarter, Kristoffersen said.
"We saw they held more back in the start of the second quarter but volumes increased throughout the quarter."
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