Published by:Christian Willbern<>
16 Apr 2025 @ 20:56 UTC
The automotive market’s struggle to recover to pre-Covid levels shut down US cast iron producer Grede’s Brewton manufacturing operations, with tariffs further spurring concerns for similar producers within the foundry industry.

I think the tariffs are going to force more shutdowns than openings at this point, a US source said.
Grede announced in February that the Brewton, Alabama, facility will stop manufacturing operations by the end of 2025 as Grede’s primary served markets have not rebounded to pre-Covid volumes resulting in an availability of capacity across some of Grede’s US foundries, according to a statement provided by Grede to Fastmarkets.
This followsGrede’s 2020 closure of the Colombiana, Alabama, facilitydue to Covid-19 and negative market conditions.
Cox Automotive projected March 2025 new vehicle sales to reach 1.16 million, up from 1.02 million in March 2024 but down from 1.54 million in March 2019, according to its 2025 vAuto Live Market View and a 2019 press release.
New vehicle prices typically rose about 3-4% per year prior to Covid-19 and other supply chain disruptions, Cox Automotive said in an April 2025 article.
Following the pandemic, the average new vehicle sales price rose 15% over 2021, according to Cox Automotive.
Grede will keep the Brewton facility open for potential warehousing and research and development (R&D), and its manufacturing business will be reallocated to other Grede facilities, starting mid-year 2025.
Although Grede representatives said recent tariff decisions did not impact the decision to cease operations, other US sources noted the shutdown could be emblematic of potential tariff impacts on the foundry industry.
The foundry industry largely produces auto parts or parts for original equipment manufacturing.
Though new vehicle price increases reduced throughout 2023-2024, Cox Automotive said new vehicle prices were expected to rise due to the inflationary impacts from the tariffs.
A bill for the 25% duty at the border for imported vehicles and a 25% tariff on foreign content in vehicles assembled inside the US will likely result in price inflation within the auto industry, Cox Automotive said in its April 2025 article.
Our expectation is that vehicles impacted by these tariffs could see prices increase 10-15%. In addition, given market dynamics, we also anticipate seeing at least a 5% increase in prices of vehicles not subjected to the full 25% tariff, they continued.
I think a lot of foundries are struggling right now. I don’t think they have workforce to produce, and they can’t handle tariffs, the first US source said.
Tariffs intended to spur [the] US automotive industry backfired as US automakers begun layoffs amid production cost increases resulting from tariffs, according to the first US source.
Thetariffswere intended to the rebuild the auto industry with parts production specifically, and [President Donald] Trump said he was going to delay the tariffs for automotive components so the US industry could get up on its feet, but it didn’t come soon enough, the first US source said.
According to the first US source, Trump then exempted auto components from tariffs to mitigate layoffs in the automotive industry.
But by delaying the tariffs, the foundries can’t keep up because automakers have gone back to importing auto parts, the first US source said. The issue is that tariffs don’t spur production.
Despite this, the American Foundry Society (AFS) supported the retention and expansion of the Section 232 and 301 tariffs and said the judicious use of tariffs can help achieve a more level playing field in international trade, according to its 2025 Policy Agenda.
According to its first quarter 2025 survey, the AFS found that roughly 68.89% of foundries believe that that the Trump administration’s policies will have both positive and negative impacts on their foundries.
US foundries could face potential supply impacts amid baseline tariffs on pig iron-producing countries.
Foundries largely produce ductile iron or grey iron, which rely on raw materials such as foundry pig iron or basic pig iron.
At this point in time, Brazil and Ukraine — the two top pig iron suppliers to the US — still have a baseline 10% tariff on all goods coming into the US.
It hasn’t had an effect yet because the costs are going to be passed onto the consumer, but it’s going to impact foundries down the road because demand is going to go down, the first US source said.
I don’t see the tariff doing anything but costing more for the end user, a second US source said.
The AFS further stated in its 2025 Policy Agenda that any trade package should include a renewal of the miscellaneous tariff law which exempts from tariffs key products not made in the United States.
The US foundry industry comprises of 1,700 manufacturing facilities producing castings made from iron, steel, aluminium, and other non-ferrous alloys, according to the AFS.
The $50 billion dollar industry largely produces material for end-use markets such as the automotive, aerospace and construction industries, the AFS said on its website.