Husqvarna CEO says Gulf tensions could drive costs $32 million higher

April 23 (Reuters) - Husqvarna's chief executive said on Thursday that the turmoil in the Middle East could increase the Swedish garden equipment maker's costs by 300 million Swedish crowns ($32 million) this year if the U.S.-Iran war is extended.

"If this situation continues for the rest of 2026, I would ... see around 100 million crowns of headwind from logistics and 200 million from raw materials," CEO Glen Instone told Reuters.

He said longer transport routes were beginning to raise freight costs, while oil prices were feeding through into plastics and could also affect steel and aluminium.

Husqvarna would have to respond with higher prices if cost inflation of that scale materialised, Instone said.

"We must do it by way of price. That is always difficult, pushing through even more price increases, but we must do it if we get an inflationary pressure of that magnitude," he said.

For Husqvarna, price increases matter particularly in North America, where the company is seeing improving trends in its professional business but remains cautious on the consumer side. Demand remains the biggest risk to the outlook, Instone said, adding that costs of tariffs and raw materials could in principle be offset, but a weaker end-market was harder to control. Husqvarna relies on imported products for about 40% of its U.S. sales and has been reworking its supply chain to limit exposure to higher U.S. tariffs, shifting some production from China to Europe and rerouting shipments.

($1 = 9.2495 Swedish crowns) (Reporting by Alexander Klyve Gudbrandsen and Jesus Calero, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)