US Truck Manufacturing Flees Offshore as Tariffs Bite - Supply Chains Pivot Amid Trade War Fallout

American truck factories are hitting the road—straight to overseas facilities. Steep tariffs force manufacturers to seek cheaper production hubs abroad, reshaping the automotive landscape.

The Great Migration

Companies bypass domestic costs by relocating operations to tariff-free zones. Mexico and Southeast Asia emerge as top destinations—cutting expenses while maintaining output.

Supply Chain Whiplash

Logistics networks scramble to adapt. Component suppliers face squeezed margins or follow their clients offshore. Just another day in the relentless pursuit of shareholder value—because nothing says 'economic patriotism' like chasing the lowest labor cost.

Domestic production dwindles as global trade realities trump political rhetoric. The assembly lines roll on—just not on American soil.

The production is set to decline as well

ACT Research forecasts 2026 production to decline 11% year on year to 226,600 units, after economic headwinds and weaker carrier profitability weighed on the industry in 2025. The slowdown adds to the pressure created by tariffs.

Bellevue, Washington-based Paccar, which sells trucks under the Kenworth and Peterbilt brands, has put a number on the impact. The company estimates $75 million in tariff costs in the third quarter. Paccar said its brands held a 30.4% U.S. market share in the first half of 2025. For comparison, Daimler Truck reported a first-quarter gross margin of 21.96%, ahead of Paccar’s 18.69%. On a recent earnings call, CEO Preston Feight said the company is working with suppliers to increase USMCA-certified parts imports to reduce long-term tariff exposure.

Those costs show up on the sticker. ACT Research estimates duties add about 2% to 4% to each truck’s per-unit cost. Daimler’s Mexican-built Freightliner Cascadia is priced at about $165,000, compared with roughly $195,000 for Paccar’s comparable Kenworth T680. Raw materials, castings and finished components account for about 85% of the total cost of building a truck, which magnifies the effect of import charges on everything from steel to completed subassemblies.

Munich-based Traton, which operates International Motors (formerly Navistar) for the North American market, told Reuters the USMCA enables it to qualify most finished trucks for duty-free access to the U.S. market. “This can offer a structural cost advantage versus U.S. production in cases where U.S. plants rely on imported steel, aluminum, or components subject to Section 232 or other additional tariffs,” the Volkswagen-owned company said in a statement to Reuters.

Daimler Truck said it runs two USMCA-compliant plants in Mexico that produce a range of models, including the Freightliner Cascadia Class 8 truck and the medium-duty Freightliner M2. That footprint helps the company price competitively against trucks assembled in the United States that rely on parts affected by Section 232 duties.

Even with cost pressure, the U.S. heavy-duty truck market remains huge. Research firm Mordor Intelligence values the market at $51.56 billion and projects it will reach $71.81 billion by 2030, reflecting continued demand for freight capacity and replacement cycles.

Policy could shift costs again. In April, the U.S. Commerce Department launched a Section 232 investigation into whether imports of medium- and heavy-duty trucks and parts threaten national security.

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