Bonds: “Better to play it safe”
Trump's customs policy is causing nervousness to rise once again. “Safe havens” such as German government bonds are in demand again. Car bonds - unlike car shares - are holding up well. The slump in the price of Turkish lira bonds is being used for purchases.
28 March 2025 FRANKFURT (Börse Frankfurt). Following the US tariffs of 25 percent on steel and aluminum products in force since mid-March, tariffs of 25 percent are now also being imposed on cars and car parts. “Tump is fueling a global trade war with the auto tariffs,” explains Tim Oechsner, who trades bonds for Steubing AG. Retaliatory measures are likely to follow shortly. The US Federal Reserve will also have to deal with this. “If new vehicles become more expensive, this will have an impact on US inflation.”
The uncertainty is leading to a flight into German government bonds and US Treasuries as safe havens. In turn, the yield on ten-year Bunds fell and stood at 2.73% on Friday morning, compared to 2.82% at the beginning of the week. At the beginning of the month, yields even briefly exceeded 2.93% due to the announcement of the multi-billion euro financial package in Germany.
Extremely popular: Turkish lira bonds
Bonds denominated in Turkish lira continue to be in high demand, as Gregor Daniel from Walter Ludwig Wertpapierhandelsbank reports. They have stabilized somewhat after the sharp market slump following the arrest of Istanbul's mayor and Erdoğan opponent Imamoğlu last week. Particularly liquid: a lira bond issued by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development EBRD (XS2779805097), which matures in 2031 and currently yields 31 percent. “It is being bought all the time,” reports the trader. Other EBRD bonds are also in demand (XS2756383233, XS2765026468, XS2034314224), with maturities until 2027, 2029 and 2026, they currently offer between 35 and 39 percent.
Arthur Brunner from ICF Bank also reports many purchases of Norwegian government bonds in kroner at the beginning of the week. One example is a bond with 3.625 percent until 2034 (NO0013148338).
Car bonds: sideways movement
In corporate bond trading, the focus is on automotive bonds due to the tariffs, as Oechsner reports. There is high turnover, for example, in bonds from Mercedes-Benz (DE000A289QR9, DE000A3LH6T7), Porsche Automobil Holding (XS2615940215) and VW (XS2694874533, XS2374595044) - in both directions. Daniel also sees buying and selling for VW bonds (XS1893631769). “There are no major price movements in auto bonds,” explains Rainer Petz from Oddo BHF.
Fraport and MTU in demand, calm at Mutares
According to Daniel, Fraport bonds maturing in 2032 (XS2832873355) and MTU Aero Engines 2031 (XS2887896574) with yields of currently 3.68 percent and 3.42 percent and a long-term Eon bond maturing in 2044 with a yield of 4.22 percent (XS2791960664) are in demand.
The two Mutares bonds (NO0012530965, NO0013325407) continue to show very high turnover, as Brunner notes. These had risen in the course of the rapid increase in Steyr's share price, but lost some ground again with the subsequent price drop. Mutares had floated Steyr on the stock exchange, but still holds a large proportion of the shares in the company, which benefited from the armaments boom.
Restructuring for Nordwest Industrie?
The Nordic Bond of Nordwest Industrie Finance (NO0013355255) fell sharply this week, as Daniel reports. The Bremen-based investment company announced that it was preparing “measures to eliminate a liquidity bottleneck”. The background to this is the ongoing negative development of the business with mounting systems for solar installations. As soon as there is clarity about the package of measures, there will be a bondholders' meeting - a restructuring is probably on the agenda. According to Daniel, the last price on Friday morning was 60 percent.
Hep and Publity under selling pressure
According to Brunner, bonds from hep global (DE000A3H3JV5) and hep solar projects (DE000A351488) also fell sharply. “There are rumors that the company
by Anna-Maria Borse, 28 March 2025, © Deutsche Börse
About the Author
Anna-Maria Borse is a financial and business editor specializing in the financial market/stock exchange and economic topics.
Feedback and questions to redaktion@deutsche-boerse.com
Deutsche Börse 
