Quebec facing layoffs, fewer contracts as U.S. imposes 25% tariff on aluminum, steel

U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs on aluminum and steel were officially implemented Wednesday and Quebec producers have already taken a bruising.

Some companies like Cyrell AMP have been experiencing hits to revenue even before the tariffs were officially put in place.

The company, which is located on Montreal’s South Shore and produces building panels from aluminum and galvanized steel, said that they have lost $1.5 million in contracts due to the uncertainties that came from Trump’s economic threats. 

“We could live with the consequences on the short term of 25 per cent, but now if we’re talking 50 or 75 per cent, that makes no sense,” said Cyrell AMP Vice President of Sales and Business Development Pierre Boulanger, referring to Trump’s Tuesday stint that saw him raising tariffs to 50 per cent before lowering the tax to 25 per cent later that day.

While Cyrell AMP said that it can still operate amid the new tariffs, they’ve had to lay off 10 employees and pair down their scheduling.

“We’ve cut out about 15 per cent of our employees and we’ve reduced the shifts,” Boulanger said. “We had a night shift. Now we reduced it from an eight hour day to a four day.”

However, some other metal producers have managed to remain unscathed.

Nova Steel, a Montreal-based company that produces steel pipes, said that they haven’t had to lay anyone off just yet. They said that the price of American steel rose substantially in the month before the tariffs were put in place, meaning that they can still remain competitive.

However, the company still remains wary as any increase in the price of steel can spell drastic consequences for them, Nova Steel CEO Scott Jones said.

“If the tariffs went to 50 per cent, like (Trump) threatened earlier this week, we would have been in a lot of trouble and stopped shipments,” he said.

The tariffs on aluminum and steel have also already had impacts outside Quebec’s city centres. In Drummondville, Mayor Stéphanie Lacoste said that close to 3,000 jobs are at risk in the region.

“We are very much worried about there being tariffs because they will have a direct impact on our economy and our citizens,” she said.

AluQuébec, which represents about 40,000 jobs in the the province’s aluminum industry, said that many U.S. companies had already stopped purchasing aluminum products at the start of the tariff threats, which led to Quebec companies issuing layoffs.

However, Quebecois workers in the aluminum industry shouldn’t hold their breath, AluQuébec CEO François Racine said, as more could be on the way given that Quebec companies export about 10 to 25 per cent of their local production to the U.S. 

“Some companies will have a tough financial time if the situation stays the same. We don’t wish to see any closures, but everything’s possible at this point,” he added.

Boulanger said that U.S. tariffs spell out uncertainty in the coming years and that his company cannot guarantee that there will be any more layoffs.

“If President Trump is in power for the next four years, we need to prepare for that,” Boulanger said. “This is something that unfortunately we have to deal with. Hopefully there’ll be no more layoffs, but who knows?”