Prices haven’t changed radically for LBM dealers in the tariffs era. But that situation could change in the near future.
The first tranche of “retaliatory” import tariffs from the Canadian government to be levied on American goods, now two months old, affected some $30 billion of imports from south of the border. The list of products that are incurring the tariff (at 25 per cent) was published by the Finance Department in early March. It included engineered wood products manufactured in the U.S.
PRO Dealer Business reached out to dealers and head offices of independent pro yards, to see what impacts the counter-tariffs were having. Some buyers are looking to switch to Canadian sources of EWP.
When asked what affect the tariffs had on her business, Cythia Prazeres-Mare, president of Senso Building Supplies Ltd., a pro dealer in Toronto’s west end, said, surprisingly: “Not very much.” Senso is a member of AD Building Supplies – Canada. Prazeres-Mare said that she hadn’t noticed significant price increases from vendors.
Kelvin Johnston, senior buyer, commodity lumber and panels, at Castle Building Centres Group believes there’s a reason for that. He said that “Some vendors are absorbing the tariffs for now. They have a lot of product on the ground that was brought in before the tariffs were in place. Some vendors have already changed their pricing while some will do it on a SKU-by-SKU basis as they run through their current inventory.”
A prominent vice-president of a major LBM buying group, who declined to be identified, concurred with Johnston that a number of vendors are absorbing the tariffs for now, hoping they will be rescinded. “But they will have no choice eventually,” the VP said.
“Some vendors are changing sources to mitigate the tariffs, for example, shipping from EU factories as opposed to their U.S. plants. Many other categories of LBM will be affected if [Canada] applies their second and third potential tariff lists. That has not happened yet.” Composite decking is among the categories that could well be hit in that case.
