By Mathias de Rozario
(Reuters) -Forvia has so far mitigated about 50% of its estimated exposure to U.S. tariffs and is on track to cover the rest, the French automotive supplier’s CEO Martin Fischer said in a call on Thursday.
The company, which exports goods manufactured in its Mexican plants into the United States, has since March been impacted by the 25% duties U.S. President Donald Trump imposed on Mexico.
Forvia, which supplies parts to Stellantis, Volkswagen and Ford, is proactively mitigating that impact by securing pass-throughs with clients, negotiating supplier deals and adjusting its supply chain, it said.
“We ensured that we used the pass-through and negotiation clauses with our customers, we are working to optimise our supply chain, we are also working to make maximum use of our factories in the U.S. and then to make costs more flexible at all the factories concerned,” Chief Financial Officer Olivier Durand said in a call with journalists.
It is also reducing investments to cope with market volatility, with a targeted cut of more than 100 million euros ($113.5 million) in capital expenditures and development costs in 2025 compared to last year.
It will cut additional fixed costs by freezing hiring globally, immediately reducing non-permanent contracts, restricting travel and cutting marketing expenses by cancelling its presence at the CES and IAA trade shows.
Durand added that Forvia, which is seeking to sell off non-strategic assets by the end of 2026, had seen signs of interest mainly from non-European players.
Forvia’s sales grew 2.6% to 6.7 billion euros in the first quarter of 2025, outperforming the global automotive market, according to the S&P Global Mobility forecast published earlier this month.
That outperformance was mainly driven by its seating and electronics businesses in Europe, the company said.
Sales in China meanwhile grew 4.6% to 1.3 billion euros.
“Even if there is an overall underperformance in China, it includes a further increase in our business with Chinese OEMs, particularly the development of BYD and the ramp-up of our business with Chery,” Durand said.
($1 = 0.8812 euros)
(Reporting by Mathias de Rozario in Gdansk and Makini Brice in Paris, additional reporting by Gilles Guillaume, editing by Milla Nissi)
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