MichAuto Executive Director Glenn Stevens Jr. recently joined WDIV-TV to discuss the impact of new tariffs on suppliers across Michigan, like Detroit Axle. Detroit Axle announced that will permanently lay off more than 100 employees due to President Donald Trump’s tariff policy.
Watch the interview and learn more in the news article below.
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July 25, 2025
Sara Powers and Noelle Friel
Detroit Axle announced that it will permanently lay off more than 100 employees due to President Donald Trump’s tariff policy.
The local auto parts supplier announced that its Ferndale warehouse, located at 2000 W. 8 Mile Road, will close indefinitely, resulting in the permanent loss of 102 jobs.
Detroit Axle announced in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) notice to the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.
“The decision to close this facility is due to unforeseen circumstances, specifically the sudden imposition of government tariffs, which have significantly disrupted our supply chain and sharply increased the costs of goods,” Detroit Axle Chief Executive Officer Mike Musheinesh said in the notice. “These changes have had a direct and unanticipated impact on our warehouse operations, making it financially unsustainable to continue operating this facility.”
The job cuts were scheduled to take effect on Aug. 25.
According to the notice, there are no bumping rights, and a union does not represent the employees.
This comes after Trump announced a 25% tariff on parts and finished vehicles, with some exceptions. Earlier this week, Trump announced a 15% tax on goods imported from Japan.
In 1990, Ed Musheinesh opened Detroit Axle as a small parts shop near the Rouge Plant in Dearborn.
Musheinish passed the role of chief executive officer to his son in 2012, and around that same time, the company relocated its retail and manufacturing operations to the warehouse in Ferndale, according to Detroit Axle’s website.
“Many family-owned, many second, third generation businesses, they don’t have as strong of balance of sheet, they’re not as highly capitalized as other companies, so they’re going to feel it,” Glenn Stevens Jr., executive director of MichAuto at the Detroit Regional Chamber, said about the tariffs.
Stevens says automakers and auto suppliers across Michigan are feeling the strain of the tariffs, especially smaller, family-owned companies that make up the majority of the industry in the state.
“What companies do, whether they absorb it, they pass it along to their customer, or if they take that financial hit, smaller companies can’t absorb that,” Stevens said. “So we do have concerns about the fragility of the supply base in these smaller companies.”
This month, General Motors announced a $1 billion loss in its second quarter due to the tariffs.
Stevens Jr. said the industry could continue to see these kinds of layoffs, with local suppliers that rely on imported parts from countries like China feeling some of the most significant impacts.
He said auto industry leaders are looking to the Trump administration to work out a trade agreement between Canada, Mexico, and the U.S for some relief.
“We got that under the first Trump administration. We hope that it will get restored to that,” Stevens Jr. said. “Our countries are very interconnected, our companies are very interconnected, and it’s really incumbent on the health of Michigan’s auto industry that we get back to that.”