The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, March 6, edition that CIBC World Markets analyst Krista Friesen, while noting shares of Canada auto suppliers are trading near multi-year lows, sees U.S. tariffs as "an existential threat to the industry." The Globe's David Leeder writes in the Eye On Equities column that Ms. Friesen says in a note: "Prior to any tariff talk, we had viewed 2025 as a 'run-of-the-mill' challenging year, given production was forecast to be flat year-over-year at best. The implementation of tariffs creates significant uncertainty for an industry that has worked to integrate itself since the introduction of the Canada-United States Automotive Products Agreement in 1965, with vehicles crossing the border seven to eight times on average as they are being built. At this time, there remains a significant amount of uncertainty as to how the industry will cope. ... Our current understanding is the U.S. tariffs have no duty drawback ability, meaning each time a vehicle crosses to the U.S., the tariffs are compounded." Ms. Friesen has cut Martinrea to "neutral" from "outperformer" with a $9 share target, falling from $14. Analysts on average target the shares at $15.25.
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