(Montreal) Alcoa’s Quebec factories can redirect a little less than a third of their international production to avoid American customs duties by 50 %.
Since March, Alcoa has redirected nearly 100,000 tonnes of aluminum that would have been intended for the American market, said the president and chief executive officer, William Oplinger, during a presentation to investors last week.
“We have the capacity to redirect almost 30 % of the Canadian volume to destinations other than the United States,” said the boss of the American company. We will do it as long as it is more supposed to send it elsewhere. »»
The Canadian activities of the American company Alcoa are concentrated in Quebec, where it has three factories.
The Trump administration imposed, in March, customs duties of 25 % on aluminum imports. They subsequently increased 50 % at the beginning of June.
Mr. Oplinger believes that Washington is wrong hoping to repatriate the jobs of the primary aluminum industry. “Each aluminum worker in Canada supports approximately 12 to 13 downstream jobs (processing) in the United States,” he said.
American companies depend on Canada to meet their aluminum needs. The United States has produced only 670,000 tonnes of aluminum in 2024. Canada sent almost 2.9 million tonnes in the United States, 70 % of American imports.
The United States cannot simply be self-sufficient, according to Alcoa’s boss. It would take years to build the necessary factories and the production of electricity should increase considerably to supply them.
“It would probably cost US 30 billion to repatriate 4 million tonnes of production in the United States,” he said.
During the second quarter, customs duties on aluminum cost US 115 million to the American company.
If customs duties remain 50 % and aluminum prices remain stable, the company estimates that quarterly costs will be 215 million US for the third quarter.
The finance chief, Molly Beerman, said that the increase in the Midwest premium, which sets the price of aluminum in North America, was not sufficient to compensate for customs duties. “We have observed a gain of US 60 million (thanks to the increase in Midwest), the negative effect on our margins is therefore 55 million US. »»
Alcoa Canada claims on her website that she has 2,500 direct jobs in Quebec and does business with 1,000 local suppliers. She estimates that it generates 1.2 billion in local expenses.
