The U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum are having an impact on the Parkland.
Local manufacturer, Ritz Machine Works, relies on these goods for their products.
Michael Weedon, Director of Finance for Ritz, tells us how they are being affected.
“Basically we’re being affected in both directions, so in response to Trump’s tariffs, Trudeau has announced retaliatory tariffs or as they call it, surtaxes, so that will affect U.S. steel and aluminum that is imported into Canada. Because we at Ritz, we source steel and aluminum from all over the world and basically our suppliers select the steel that works best for us in terms of the products we are creating for our customers and also based on price. Under Free Trade, it didn’t matter where the steel came from, as long as it met everybody’s needs. Now with these tariffs being in place, we have to be a lot more concerned about the country of origin for that steel in order to try and avoid those tariffs. ”
Ritz sources steel and aluminum from all over the world and now buyers are not sure how this will influence the market.
For now, Ritz is not too concerned with tariffs being placed on their finished product.
Weedon notes the biggest concern from all of this:
“Then we have to look at whether our customers are going to be able to tolerate any sort of price increase from us, you know in that regard as well. I guess that’s the biggest thing about this whole tariffs issue, is that it’s affecting virtually anyone in North America that has steel as raw material, or aluminum as raw material in their products, so this is a very huge issue and it’s affecting everybody.”
