Bolts, screws, what not. The home-grown Winona company Fastenal, now a global player for industrial and construction supplies, has 1,800 local employees and 23,700 worldwide.
Path ahead: Navigating Trump’s global trade mess
WINONA, Minn. – Investors have pretty much stuck with Fastenal, Winona’s largest employer, through the rocky two months since President Trump rattled global trade with massive new tariffs. Fastenal stock closed last week on the New York Exchange at $40.65 a share. That was off significantly from its 52-week high, but it wasn’t as badly damaged as some other publicly traded companies. Transactions in those hellish few days in April ranged from $11 million to $15 million a day. Stock – mostly sell-offs. Since then, trading has been in a more typical range of $3 million to $9 million a day. Some timeline comparisons are tricky because Fastenal went through a 2-for-1 stock split May 23. But looked at either way —before the split or after – there is no doubt about the major sell-off the days after the Trump announcement on April 2. But since then the stock found a new normal range at $39.01 to $40.65.
Still, however, questions remain about how well Fastenal can weather the new Trump tariffs, which have further complicated by the President’s erratic and unpredictable behavior. Trump levies changed radically day to day without any coherent strategy that economists could ascertain.
By some measures Fastenal has vulnerabilities still. Its traditional U.S. market relies heavily on fasteners and industrial products manufactured in China. These arrive mostly by ocean ships for transfer to 15 U.S. domestic distribution warehouses. But Fastenal also has cultivated local markets abroad. Those shipments don’t pass through U.S. ports and are shielded from Trump tariffs.
Fastenal, however, faces larger vulnerabilities. The new Trump tariffs have been stratospheric — a 125% in reciprocity for some countries, plus a 20% punitive surcharge on Chinese goods for fentanyl smuggling, plus an additional 75% to 100% on specific products. Economists see no rhyme nor reason to these levies and worry that they portend a global economic slowdown – a recession for sure, even a 1930s style depression. Few companies will escape the economic disaster. At worst, Fastenal’s industrial and construction customer base will wither next to nothing.
The Winona mother ship. The company has offices and sites all around town. The main site is the manufacturing and warehousing facility on Pelzer Street and stretching several blocks along Theurer Boulevard into the Goodview city limits.
Freghtliner electro-truck. At Winona loading dock. The company maintains a flashy state-of-art fleet for moving goods among distribution centers