Goodyear Tire & Rubber will close its Fayetteville, North Carolina manufacturing plant in 2027, eliminating more than 1,700 jobs in a shutdown the company blames on tariff costs and energy price spikes from the Iran conflict.
The numbers tell the story corporate PR won't. Goodyear swung from a $115 million profit in Q1 2025 to a $249 million loss in Q1 2026. The culprit: $420 million in annual headwinds from inflation and tariffs combined, according to the company's CFO.
The Tariff Trap
Here's the fundamental problem: rubber trees don't grow in the United States. Goodyear imports natural rubber primarily from Thailand, which means tariffs on Thai rubber imports raise costs without creating a single American job in rubber production.
As trade expert Ed Gresser put it: "Tariffs on natural rubber, no matter how high, won't bring rubber-tree plantation jobs to Minnesota or North Carolina, but will raise costs and reduce sales for every U.S. manufacturer."
Goodyear expects $46 million in tariff refunds following a Supreme Court ruling, but that's a one-time windfall that doesn't address the structural cost disadvantage created by ongoing tariff policy.
Double Whammy: War Costs
The company's CFO cited "higher raw material costs" driven by energy price spikes from the Iran conflict. When oil and natural gas prices surge, so do petrochemical feedstock costs for synthetic rubber production. Goodyear gets squeezed from both sides: natural rubber tariffs and synthetic rubber input costs.
Meanwhile, competitors in Asia and Europe face neither the tariff burden nor the same energy cost structure, giving them a decisive price advantage in global markets.
