After reviewing President Trump’s plans to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, Lockheed Martin [LMT] on Monday said it doesn’t expect any negative direct impact to the company but cautioned that its suppliers could suffer, which in turn could increase costs and cause delays.
“At this time, we do not expect these tariffs to have a significant direct impact on Lockheed Martin programs, primarily because we procurement most of our materials through long-term agreements,” Lockheed Martin said in a statement provided to Defense Daily. “We will, however, continue to evaluate the impact on our supply chain, which could be more directly and immediately affected—potentially driving up costs and leading to delays in delivery of these materials for our products.”
On March 8, Trump said he plans shortly to impose tariffs of 25 percent and 10 percent on steel and aluminum, respectively. For now, the pending levies will not apply to Canada and Mexico.
Lockheed Martin said it is “encouraged” that the tariffs don’t apply to imports from Canada and cited other potential mitigating impacts.
“The new policy also includes accommodations for other strategic partners that enter into an appropriate dialogue with the administration to address the national security concerns associated with these imports,” the company said.
The White House cited national and economic security concerns reasons for imposing the tariffs. However, industry associations that represent the U.S. aerospace and defense industries believe the tariffs will lead to higher costs for manufacturers and are also concerned about potential retaliatory trade measures.
Boeing [BA] and General Dynamics [GD] both declined to comment last week on the pending tariffs.