Kitchener, Ont. metal business responds to aluminum and steel tariffs

A business in Kitchener, Ont. fears a potential financial storm as the U.S. imposes new tariffs on steel and aluminum. CTV’s Spencer Turcotte on what it could m

There is a feeling of uncertainty at local metal businesses as they try to digest and fully understand the effects of the steel and aluminum tariffs on the products they sell.

Metal Supermarkets Kitchener serves as a convenience store for metal. They bundle it or cut it to size for customers.

Despite them not being a Canadian exporter, they will be impacted because they are a distributer. They get their materials from all over North America and supplier pricing largely dictates how much they charge.

They are already anticipating price increases and supply chain slowdowns, which is a tough blow after thinking there would be a 30-day reprieve on any tariffs.

“Bam - it’s back. It really hasn’t given us a chance to prepare our customers fully, or even prepare ourselves for what we might be facing,” said Lex Lorentz, manager at Metal Supermarkets Kitchener.

Given pricing could be out of their hands, they hope customers keep that in mind.

“As much as we try to keep our prices low for the customers, it’s going to trickle down the chain. If somebody’s paying the tariffs some way, it has to go through,” said Lorentz.

They’re already making changes too.

“One of the immediate impacts is that we’re not able to hold customer quote prices for longer than about 24 hours because we don’t know what it’s going to be if we have to bring in more material tomorrow,” said Lorentz. “We used to be able to hold pricing for at least a week, but now the turnaround is a lot more sudden.”

It’s an unfortunate case of déjà vu for Metal Supermarkets Kitchener. They had to go through the same thing during Trump’s tariff increase in his first term.

They hope, like last time, they’ll get through it.

“It may mean that we are holding less inventory on hand, which means it’s going to be a little more of a delay to get stock to our customers. There’s also the possibility that if there are slows in production, then it will take longer for us to get material in as well,” said Lorentz.

The silver lining is there are options. They cut metal to size so people can keep an eye on their spending by only buying what they need.

Also, even if prices go up staff can suggest that instead of using stainless steel, customers can opt for aluminum if it will serve the same purpose and keep costs a tad lower. It can be seen as the lesser of two evils in the case.

If Canada fights back with retaliatory tariffs, it could make keeping costs down even tougher.