Trade war
Trump wants companies to start manufacturing in America again, both US and foreign companies. In itself, not an illogical aspiration, something that perhaps Europe too should look at: bring back big industries and produce locally. Still, Trump's import tariffs will undoubtedly provoke a backlash, which could lead to a trade war. This will fuel inflation considerably.
Bankruptcies
These measures will particularly affect companies that export heavily to the US in the short term. US demand for foreign products will fall. This will hit the European car industry, which is already struggling, hard. New sales markets will have to be tapped. According to CBS, there were over 30% more bankruptcies in 2024 than in 2023. In January 2025, the number remained flat compared to a year earlier, but February already showed an increase. We expect the number of bankruptcies to continue rising for now. A trade war would certainly accelerate that process.
Source: https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/nieuws/2025/11/meer-faillissementen-in-februari
Weapons
As a company, what can you do to guard against this? First of all: check your customer's creditworthiness before entering into a collaboration. And keep monitoring that creditworthiness during the collaboration as well. Furthermore, you can protect yourself against non-payment. Writing off a few thousand euros because a customer goes bankrupt is annoying, but manageable. But what if your biggest customer collapses and no longer pays? With credit insurance, you protect yourself against the risk of bankruptcy and non-payment of your customer. You also help prevent problems: because the insurer continuously monitors your customers' creditworthiness. And if they do not pay, they also take on the collection process.
Xolv is happy to investigate the possibilities of a suitable credit insurance for your company. We check the creditworthiness of your main buyers and make a no-obligation quotation comparison.
