Tariff Threat Unknowns have local steel, Aluminum Companies concerned

What we do not know yet about us President Donald Trump’s Threatened Tariffs on Canadian Steel and Aluminum has local companies concerned, they say.

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Trump Has Said A 25 Per Cent Tariff Will Be imposed on Canadian Steel and Aluminum Products Starting March 14 – On Top of A Threatened 25 per cent Tariff on Canadian Imports Early Next Month.

Bill Munns, General Manager of Chatham Steel Fabricator Maple Industries Inc., is immersed in the tariff Issue as a Member of the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction’s Advocacy Committee.

“WE’VE GOT A LOT OF PLANS,” MUNNS SAID After Six MONTHS OF COMMITTE Discussions. “As an Industry, We’ve Been Strategizing.”

This isn’t munns’ first experience of us steel tariffs. Trump also imposed them temporal daring His First Term in 2018.

Munns, Who’s also on the Institute’s Board, Started and Chaired a Committee that dealt with the 2018 Tariffs.

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The different this time? “We just don it know why this is happening,” He Said.

LESSONS WERE LEARNED About the Impact of Tariffs in 2018, He Said. Measures Were Taken to Avoid Hurting the Auto Industry, for Example.

But it seems like trump doesn’t care about the impacts this time, Munns Said. “There’s Got to Be More to the Story, we not see the motivation behind it.”

John Jones, who’s worked at Tilbury Steel for 35 years, Said A Major concern is “Nobody Knows What the Tariffs Consist of,” Especially Because a lot of Steel Goes Back and Forth Across the Us-Canada Border.

“A lot of us are just waiting to see What Happens,” He Said. “There’s no way to prepare yourself.”

While Jones hopes Further Talks Will See Tariffs Being Pushed Off, Decisions Need to be Made Whhe to Stockpile Product or Gamble That Tariffs Don’t Come. “It’s definitely a conundrum for sure.”

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Tilbury Steel, Which Gets a Lot of Steel from Ontario and Canada, Has Many Canadian Customers that do business in the us and is concerned about the Tariffs, He Said.

Jones doesn’t Believe Trump is listening to many people who should be advising him How Tariffs Will Negatively Affect the Us Economy.

Trump’s Fickleness, Meanwhile, has the owner of chatham’s cdn metal manufacturing in chatham unsure What Will Happen with the Tariffs.

“It’s still subjective,” Mike Dalgety Said. “You never know what he (Trump) Means or What He’s Going to Follow Through with.”

That uncertainty is a “huge bread” when trying to quote prices for jobs, he said: How do you hold a price for 30 or 60 days when you do know what the price will be?

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As for Immediate Impact, Dalgety Said He’s Seen A Few Jobs where Customers are “Doing A Wait and See, But Nothing on Massive Scale, Yet.”

Chatham’s Cunningham Sheet Metal Works, Inc., Which Does Custom Work for Customers from Agriculture to Manufacturing, Wouldn’t Have to Pay Tariffs, But Would Feel Their Impact.

“If the client I have isn’t busy, i have no work,” Operations vice-president Peter Rhodes Said.

Amid the 2018 Trump Tariffs, He was one of only Two People Working in the back shop on jobs for area customers, he said.

Cunningham has been weathered mary economic ups and downs over the decades, rhodes said.

“I’ve been here for 38 1/2 years,” He Said. “You just Got to Buckle Down and Keep the Belt Tight and Hold on and Ride the Wave.”

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Diversification has been Key to Dealing With Economic Challenges and Trying “To Keep the Doors Open,” Rhodes Said. “If Anything is made out of metal, i can make it.”

Maple Industries Primary Serves the Canadian Market, but products it used to make structural steel, specificly wide-flange steel beams, Aren’t Produced in Canada, Munns Said.

“So, they have to come from outside of Canada and the Majority that we buy come from the us,” He Said.

If Canada Puts Retaliatory Tariffs On Us Steel, Maple Would Be Affuted, Munns Said.

The Company Can Buy Wide-Flange Steel Beams from Europe or South Korea, for Example, but they are Have Buy Container Loads, not the truckloads they can get from the US

Maple has Enough Work in the Canadian Market that “we are satisfied to take a wait-year approach” to How Us Tariffs Will Roll Out, Munns Said.

But the uncertainty concerns the industry.

“What it really comas down to are just don it understanding where Things are going,” Munns Said. “One day the tariff is coming, the next day the tariff’s not coming. Let’s just figure that out. ”

Dalgety Said the 2018 Tariffs Had Only A “Small Ripple Effect” on CDN Metal Manufacturing Affecting A Few Jobs Where Prices Were Set, then Costs Rose.

But “There’s Going to Be Some Howling” If offers Tariffs Stay in Place for Trump’s Four-Year Term, He Said. “People are going to be upset.”

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