Alberta's $1B steel and aluminum industries brace for impact of U.S. tariffs

With Donald Trump once again promising to hit Canada with steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, much of the national focus is on the effect it could have on the massive industry in central Canada.

But even in Alberta, steel exports are worth a billion dollars to the provincial economy. 

In 2024, Alberta exported $815 million worth of steel and steel products and $239 million worth of aluminum to the United States, according to the province.

The U.S. president announced Monday that he will impose 25 per cent tariffs on all aluminum and steel imports to the U.S., including those from Canada, on March 12.

Companies in and around Calgary are now bracing for the impact. 

At Calgary's Valley Metal, a family-run business that's been around for generations, steel is a major component in the tables and chairs it makes.

"We've gone through this before, and it's … just a tough call. Everybody's hand up in the air and not really knowing what to do and what to expect," said owner Jeff Loeb.

"It affects your bottom line. It affects your margins. It affects moving forward."

In 2018, when Trump imposed a 25 per cent tariff on steel and a 10 per cent tariff on aluminum from Canada, Mexico and other countries, steel exports from Canada dropped nearly 40 per cent, and aluminum fell by more than half.

Canada and Mexico struck back with their own tariffs — all of which were lifted right after the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) was negotiated and signed later that year, replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement.

During that go-round, Loeb says his company's orders dried up and he had to let people go. 

"If you can't keep your guys busy, you can't have them around. So, you know, we had to cancel jobs. We lost some jobs because we couldn't compete with the tariffs," he said.

"We just didn't have the work. The volume of work dropped off."

Loeb said that while about 15 per cent of his company's products are sold to U.S. buyers, they import about a third of the materials they need from the States.

"So that's going to affect us, if we do counter-tariffs, as well," he said. "Like, if I'm making pizza pans and selling them down to the United States … they will have a tariff. And if that material comes from the States, it'll be tariffs coming in and then tariffs going back out."

At Brooks Industrial Metals, a fabrication shop about 160 kilometres southeast of Calgary, there's also a sense of uncertainty as the threat of tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum looms once again. 

The company is a distributor of several kinds of metals, including carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminum. 

"Not the news you want to hear. I mean, it's always better when we can work together with the U.S.," said the shop's general manager, Justin Duenk.

Duenk said that while his company doesn't ship products to the States., it buys a lot of materials from U.S. suppliers. So if Canada hits the U.S. with counter-tariffs, they'll need to change their purchasing plans.

"We'll have to lean on some Canadian mills at least, near Ontario," he said.  "And, you know, we'll probably buy some, some more product from Asia as well. So, it'll just be less purchasing from the U.S. and more within Canada."

Deborah Yedlin, president of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, says many companies will be forced to make adjustments to their business models.

"Those smaller- and medium-sized manufacturers are going to have to look for other markets … their cost of inputs are going to go up and it's not going to be very helpful."

When asked by CBC News if he would reciprocate with matching tariffs on aluminum and steel, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is at an international AI summit in Paris, said he hopes that doesn't have to happen. 

"If it comes to that, our response, of course, will be firm and clear. We will stand up for Canadian workers. We will stand up for Canadian industries."