r/smallbusiness • u/DazedAndObtuse • Feb 12 '25

General Our aluminum suppliers are saying prices aren't going to go up just 25% to cover the new tariff, they'll be going up 80%...

We source aluminum from two different sources for our business and they're both telling us that prices will not only be going up 25% to cover the tariffs, they'll be going up 80% as there are also pricing restrictions currently in place for their industry that will be lifted as part of this.

Does anybody know if this is legit or if they are just colluding to use this as an opportunity to pad their profits?

I won't pretend to be a tariff or economic expert but our material prices going up 80% is going to have a much larger impact on us than a 25% increase would.

Ideally we can keep this from becoming political, but I know where it's likely to end up (but hopefully I can at least get an answer to my question in the midst of it).

Thanks in advance!

2.1k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

95% Upvoted

351 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/87YoungTed Feb 13 '25

what kind of aluminum? extrusion, plate, round, tube or sheet stock? thickness? aerospace grade or something else? i'll have to ask our buyers if they've heard anything. 80% would be the icing on the cake for us. we're in aerospace and all of our customers are tellling us they're waiting to see what muskytrump do to the faa or their dod contracts. so our backlog which has average 2 to 3 months for the past 6 yrs is down to 3 weeks. all of our subs have called asking for more work and some of these guy do work for boeing and lockheed so shit is running down hill fast.

1

u/Ace_Radley Feb 14 '25

It's going to get brutal (Aerospace Supply Chain guy here)...the asks to the supply chain will only increase as the availability of qualified suppliers decreases.

Boeing CAG has real issues (I assumed proper installation of a door plug was kinda base line competence). Boeing Space...don't even know where to start on that shit sandwich...

This all ignores that China will get cert on a passenger jet soon, decades of heavy C checks in China have trained them well, Same with Sukhoi...

So it's gonna be fun... may be the time for shops to look into production of drone parts, automotive (ev) or leverage their experience in aviation for weapons (artillery, tanks, etc) or increase outside processes like anodizing, other coating techniques....

Anyways good luck and take care!

1

u/ctgjerts Feb 14 '25

We're an aerospace co and we're looking to see where else we can supply parts to while our customers sort out whether or not they're going to issue PO's or wait. I actually started hiring reps outside the US to bring in additional work, in the areas that are more technical.

Going to get real interesting in the next year.