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Harley-Davidson Profit Is Wiped Out by President Trump’s Tariffs


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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-29/harley-profit-wiped-out-by-tariffs-as-sales-continue-slumping

 

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Harley-Davidson Inc. barely broke even in the last quarter of a year in which the struggling American icon got caught up in President Donald Trump’s trade wars. The motorcycle maker’s shares plunged the most in a year.

 

Earnings per share on a GAAP basis were zero in the fourth quarter, the Milwaukee-based manufacturer said in a statement Tuesday. Excluding restructuring and tariff costs, profit was 17 cents a share, missing analysts’ average estimate for 29 cents.

 

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Harley has been investing to expand a new plant in Thailand to boost exports and produce the majority of motorcycles sold in the EU and China by the end of this year, Levatich said in the interview. The company hadn’t previously specified where U.S. production would be shifted to avoid tariffs the EU implemented in retaliation for higher levies on steel and aluminum.

 

Trump said in August that he’d back a boycott of the company’s bikes for moving production out of America. Tariff costs of $100 million to $120 million this year will be eliminated in 2020, once the Thailand plant expansion is completed, executives said on an earnings call.

 

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Motorcycles are death machines, even more so than cars and trucks. Why would I want to take that risk? Boomers will say "well I rode one and I turned out fine!", but they fail to remember the people they knew who were killed or maimed in accidents.

 

In the event of a world-ending plague where I am a sole survivor, then yeah, I will use one to navigate the clogged streets filled with rusting car hulks. But otherwise I am steering clear. And actually, I'd probably just use a bicycle instead.

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19 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

Motorcycles are death machines, even more so than cars and trucks. Why would I want to take that risk? Boomers will say "well I rode one and I turned out fine!", but they fail to remember the people they knew who were killed or maimed in accidents.

 

In the event of a world-ending plague where I am a sole survivor, then yeah, I will use one to navigate the clogged streets filled with rusting car hulks. But otherwise I am steering clear. And actually, I'd probably just use a bicycle instead.

Yep.  People are more distracted than ever these days while driving a car.  No way I'm riding a motorcycle.

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28 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

Motorcycles are death machines, even more so than cars and trucks. Why would I want to take that risk? Boomers will say "well I rode one and I turned out fine!", but they fail to remember the people they knew who were killed or maimed in accidents.

 

In the event of a world-ending plague where I am a sole survivor, then yeah, I will use one to navigate the clogged streets filled with rusting car hulks. But otherwise I am steering clear. And actually, I'd probably just use a bicycle instead.

 

Millennials will change their tune once they play Days Gone.

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7 hours ago, PaladinSolo said:

A much bigger problem for them is that millennials aren't buying their motorcycles, leaving them with a slowly dwindling market of boomers.

Is this really true? When I took a motorcycle safety course five or six years ago, out of the ~30 people in the course (almost all of whom were “millennials”) me and this West African dude were the only ones that weren’t planning on buying a Harley. 

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