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Tariffs, Fuel Costs and Rising Rates Squeeze US Manufacturers and Retailers
American companies across manufacturing, transportation and retail are being squeezed by a three-way combination of Trump administration tariffs, surging fuel prices from the Iran war and rising interest rates. Allen Eden, owner of the 25-person Original Saw Co. in Britt, Iowa, said a small bracket for his saw motors more than doubled in price this summer, to $87 from $42, as he stockpiles aluminum, steel and parts. JPMorgan Chase global strategy head Dubravko Lakos-Bujas said in a Sept. 14 note that smaller companies relying on shorter-term lending absorb Fed hikes more directly, while capital-intensive sectors like manufacturing, trucking and commercial real estate suffer most. Lucerne International, a Detroit-area auto parts maker, halted U.S. manufacturing and canceled a $50 million aluminum forging plant in Michigan, and Spanish supplier Grupo Antolin filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. in July, citing tariffs, higher raw-material and energy costs and supply-chain disruptions. Home Depot CFO Richard McPhail said energy and raw-material pressure will fully offset the benefit of $730 million in tariff refunds, while United CFO Mike Leskinen said the airline is cutting marginal routes that don't make sense in a higher fuel environment.
Yongzhen Co. Plans to Invest 597 Million Yuan in a 60,000-Tonne Battery Aluminum Foil Project
Yongzhen Co. announced that it plans to invest 597 million yuan through its wholly owned subsidiary Yongzhen Technology Wuhu Co., Ltd. to build a project with an annual capacity of 60,000 tonnes of finished battery aluminum foil. The project will be implemented by upgrading the existing plant in Wuhu, with no need for additional land reserves. Its products will focus on ultra-thin categories of 10 microns and below, suitable for applications such as power batteries, energy storage batteries, sodium-ion batteries, and consumer electronics batteries. Qiu Chenyang, a researcher at China Research Puhua, told China Business Journal that after the project is launched, it will help Yongzhen Co. extend from photovoltaic aluminum profile processing to high-end aluminum processing for new energy, offsetting the operating pressure brought by cyclical fluctuations in the photovoltaic industry. Financial report data show that Yongzhen Co.'s net profit attributable to the parent company in 2024 was 268 million yuan. In 2025, revenue grew 30.99 percent year on year, but net profit attributable to the parent company recorded a loss of 221 million yuan. In the first half of 2026, revenue was 4.55 billion yuan, down 20.13 percent year on year, while net profit attributable to the parent company was 39.5835 million yuan, down 23.34 percent year on year, and non-recurring net profit was 5.0773 million yuan, down 91.49 percent year on year. Qiu Chenyang also pointed out that Yongzhen Co. has long focused on aluminum extrusion profile business and has no experience in large-scale mass production of ultra-thin battery aluminum foil. There is uncertainty in production yield ramp-up and process optimization progress, and the company has not yet built market reputation or brand influence in the battery aluminum foil sector. Securing orders from key large customers requires long-term accumulation. In addition, the 60,000-tonne capacity is relatively small compared with leading industry players, making it difficult to achieve economies of scale in procurement, production, and operations in the short term, and there is still room to improve cost control capabilities. At the industry level, China Securities Co., Ltd. expects effective battery aluminum foil capacity to reach 1.16 million tonnes and 1.41 million tonnes in 2026 and 2027 respectively. Wang Zheng, a senior researcher at Xinluo Information, said that overall supply and demand in the market will be tight in 2026 and processing fees have already shown an upward trend. However, companies including Dingsheng New Materials, Lidao New Materials, Zhongfu Industry, and Shenhuo Co. have successively announced capacity expansions, and competition is becoming increasingly intense.
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Tata Steel Seeks Fresh Government Funding as Port Talbot EAF Delayed
Tata Steel has approached the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology in recent weeks to discuss a new multimillion-pound support package, according to Sky News. The request is in addition to the £500m grant awarded to Tata Steel in 2023 to build an electric arc furnace at Port Talbot, part of a £1.25bn investment in the site that was supposed to have the new EAF operational by early 2028. Delays to the grid connection timetable mean the EAF will now not be up and running until late 2028 or early 2029, and the company has calculated that rising project costs and foregone sales from the delay would significantly escalate its overall cost. The precise sum sought was unclear, though industry sources said it was likely to run to hundreds of millions of pounds, and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has been briefed on the approach. The plan was aimed at preserving 5,000 steelmaking jobs across the UK, although 2,500 roles have already been lost as part of the transition, and the last of Port Talbot's blast furnaces closed in 2024. Tata Steel and the Department for Business both declined to comment.