Condo buyers in Canada will pay for trade battle with U.S.
Prices for rebar and structural steel expected to rise with 25 per cent tariff on imports
Condo buyers in Canada’s already pricey markets may be the next to pay up as the trade battle with the United States radiates through the construction industry.
Canada imposed a 25 per cent tariff on U.S. steel imports on July 1, retaliating against levies President Donald Trump slapped on goods from its northern neighbour a month ago.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is also said to be preparing quotas and tariffs for other countries to prevent a flood of steel rushing in to undercut prices.
Steel fabricators and metal importers say the tariffs will jack up prices for everything from rebar used in highrise condos to structural steel for industrial builds in a market already facing shortages and soaring prices.
Job losses and stalled projects are likely, they said.
“If the government’s not careful, they will protect one at the expense of 10 times that elsewhere,” said Walter Koppelaar, CEO and chair of Walters Inc., a Hamilton-based steel construction company that counts Brookfield among its customers.
“If they apply duties to broadspectrum steel or metal of any shape, size or description, our industry here would be decimated — it could be thousands of layoffs and it’s going to shut down projects right across this country.” The comments underscore the widening impact of Trump’s move to upend the world trade order to get what he deems is fairer access to international markets and to protect domestic jobs.
He’s pledged tariffs on $50 billion worth of goods from China and placed levies on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union. Each region has imposed countermeasures or is planning tariffs of their own.
The price of steel used for construction projects in Canada has soared by about 38 per cent in 2018 due to a booming property market and a lack of supply, according to the Canadian Coalition for Construction Steel, which represents17 companies.
“Additional safeguard surtaxes of even 10 per cent will put fabricators and purchasers into a loss position and they will not be in a position to supply the market,” according to a letter sent by the group’s representative to the government.
Further measures would be “catastrophic,” Koppelaar said.
Canadian suppliers, including AltaSteel and ArcelorMittal Dofasco, typically produce about 10 per cent of the structural steel and about half of the rebar supply, he said.
Even though global steel tar- iffs haven’t been confirmed, Ferrostaal Steel Canada Inc., a rebar importer whose parent company is Hamburg-based Ferrostaal Trading GmbH, isn’t signing new contracts for now because it doesn’t know what its prices will be.
“The margins are so slim on steel imports that you can’t just absorb a 25 per cent tariff,” said Tim McMenamin, vice-president at Whitby-based Ferrostaal.
“We’re not even offering steel into Canada because we are the importer of record, so if all a sudden there’s a surtax of 10 to 25 per cent, that could create bankruptcy for trading companies such as ours.”
The strain would hit a condo market that saw prices soar 8.3 per cent in Toronto in May from the year before and 20 per cent in Vancouver. Some projects have already been cancelled due to rising costs.
To be sure, rebar supply typically only represents about 4 per cent of a project’s cost, so a 25 per cent tariff would only result in about a 1 per cent increase in the cost of a building, according data to provided by Altus Group Ltd. Still, the increases are likely to be passed on, the company said.
“On the jobs that we’ve done, we have already tendered the deal, so those prices are locked in,” said Geoffrey Matthews, senior vice-president of highrise at Great Gulf Group. On upcoming developments like the Gehry project in Toronto, the company would likely apply a high contingency against costs at the early stages to manage potential risks, he said.