Plastic Bearings Leader Talks Trade Show Triumphs and Tariff Troubles

Tariff and trade tensions between the U.S. and Canada was a major talking point when Machine Design visited the igus booth at the MD&M West Show in Anaheim, Calif. (Feb. 4-6, 2025).

There is no way to determine what the exact impact of tariffs could be on individual companies, but the consensus was the impact on industry as a whole could be rapid and significant. 

Headquartered in Cologne, Germany, igus GmbH has branches in more than 35 countries, including the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, Brazil and China. For multinational companies like igus, the material impact to its established competitive advantage could be significant, according to Felix Brockmeyer, president and CEO of igus North America, who weighed in on how his company was strategizing its cross-enterprise response. 

Scenario-based Planning is Crucial to Being Ready to Act

Overall, for the past four years, igus has actively worked to localize manufacturing by bringing its core production elements into three regional markets: Europe, Asia and the Americas, said Brockmeyer. 

“One way or the other, the trends of deglobalization or the trends of being more national-focused was coming and we already knew that,” said Brockmeyer. “We’ve invested heavily to be independent. But the severity that we saw in the last couple of weeks surprised us as well.”

READ MORE: Two Demonstration Machines Address Multiple Medical Device Manufacturing Competencies

Making decisions have become nearly impossible, he said, “because every 24 hours there is different information out there. So, you react and then you slow down and then you react again.”

Preparation is a Work in Progress

Igus has been decentralizing its molding operations in North America for the past three years. Most of the components are manufactured in the U.S., Brockmeyer said. In addition, igus has worked on localizing raw material supplies and to be “somewhat ready” if European supplies are not available—regardless of whether that’s due to tariffs or war in Europe.

Generational changes—engineering workforce leaving the workforce in Europe—have been a trend for about five to six years, said Brockmeyer, who immigrated from Germany and was appointed to the CEO role at igus Inc. in October 2022. “The knowledge is disappearing in Europe, and we need to rebuild it here,” said Brockmeyer. “With a little bit of foresight, we started that.”

Still, the igus team was not fully prepared for the political tensions between the U.S.-Canada-Mexico, according to Brockmeyer. The company has a large team in Mexico and in Brazil with production and warehouses. “Last year we ramped up storage in those locations,” he said. On the Canadian side, igus has an office in Toronto and 30 people in the field. 

"Just this morning we had multiple customers come by that are feeling pressure to now, within 30 days, spin up certain production operations in Canada and not be at risk of potential tariff conflict,” pointed out Brockmeyer. “We are supporting this with immediate meetings. We’re setting up calls and meetings from here on the show floor. Our team in Canada is standing by. We’re feeding them information.”

READ MORE: A Showcase of Innovations Turns Heads at MD&M West

Brockmeyer added that igus has the luxury to source inventory from Europe into Canada, should supply from the U.S. into Canada become difficult. “We have a variety of footprint options, but you have to be very, very quick,” he said. “The No. 1 question I got this morning is, ‘do you have these robots in inventory?’ This is usually not a question I get because people have more time. Time, all of a sudden, is something that they don’t have.”

For Brockmeyer, the big worry for delegates visiting his booth was localizing supply chain—either from Canada into the U.S. or the U.S. into Canada. “It surprised us all.”