With Donald Trump promising once again to reach Canada with pronounced tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum, much of the national approach is in the effect it could have in the mass industry in the center of Canada.
But even in Alberta, steel exports are worth one billion dollars for the provincial economy.
In 2024, Alberta exported steel and steel products worth $ 815 million and aluminum worth $ 239 million to the United States, according to the province.
The president of the United States announced on Monday that it will impose 25 percent tariffs on all imports of aluminum and steel to the United States, including those of Canada, on March 12.
Companies in Calgary and their surroundings are now preparing for the impact.
In Calgary’s Valley Metal, a family business that has existed for generations, steel is an important component at the tables and chairs it does.
“We have gone through this before, and it is … only a difficult decision. Everyone is hand in hand in the air and they don’t really know what to do and what to expect,” said owner Jeff Loeb.
“It affects its final result. It affects its margins. It affects the progress.”
In 2018, when Trump imposed a 25 percent rate on steel and a 10 percent tariff on Canada’s aluminum, Mexico and other countries, Canada’s steel exports fell almost 40 percent, and aluminum fell In more than half.
Canada and Mexico returned their own tariffs, all of which were raised just after the Canadá-Mexico (Cusma) agreement were negotiated and signed later that year, replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement.
During that round, Loeb says that his company’s orders were exhausted and had to let people out.
“If you can’t keep your boys busy, you can’t have them close. So, you know, we had to cancel jobs. We lost some jobs because we couldn’t compete with tariffs,” he said.
“We simply did not have the work. The volume of work decreased.”
Loeb said that although about 15 percent of his company’s products are sold to American buyers, approximately one third of the materials they need from the states.
“So that will affect us, if we make counter-tarifas too,” he said. “As, if I am doing pizza pans and selling them to the United States … they will have a rate. And if that material comes from the United States, they will be tariffs and then the tariffs come out again.”
In Brooks Industrial Metals, a manufacturing store about 160 kilometers southeast of Calgary, there is also a feeling of uncertainty such as the threat of tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum looms once more.
The company is a distributor of various types of metals, which include carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminum.
“It is not the news you want to hear. I mean, it is always better when we can work along with the USA.”, Said the general manager of the store, Justin Duenk.
Duenk said that while his company does not send products to the United States, he buys many materials from US suppliers. Then, if Canada hits the US with an organs, they must change their purchase plans.
“We will have to rely on some Canadian factories at least, near Ontario,” he said. “And, you know, we will probably also buy some more products from Asia. So, it will only be less purchase of the United States and more within Canada.”
Deborah Yedlin, president of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, says that many companies will be forced to make adjustments to their business models.
“Those smaller and medium manufacturers will have to look for other markets … their cost of inputs will increase and will not be very useful.”
When CBC News asked him if it would correspond to coincidental tariffs on aluminum and steel, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is at an International Summit of AI in Paris, said he hopes that that does not have to happen.
“If it’s that, our answer, of course, will be firm and clear. We will defend Canadian workers. We will defend the Canadian industries.”
