Graphic Arts Companies
Feel the Pinch of
Aluminum Tariffs
In June, the Trump Administration levied a 10% tariff on
imported aluminum and a 25% tariff on imported steel. At
present, the tariff s are having the biggest impact on manufacturers
of aluminum lithographic plates—although that
may be just the beginning. Plate manufacturers are deciding
how best to respond, while industry associations are helping
to fi ght back.
What started as a threat became a reality in June when the
Trump Administration decided to levy a 10% tariff on imported
aluminum and a 25% tariff on imported steel. Th e tariff s
are having the biggest impact on manufacturers of aluminum
plates—although that may be just the beginning.
“Aluminum is in excess of 50% of our overall manufacturing
costs of litho plates and that would be consistent among
all the manufacturers,” said Richard Rindo, General Manager,
Off set Print, and Vice President, Print Systems Division, at
Eastman Kodak.
For Agfa, the 10% tariff was just the start. “As part of this,
there was also a change in the ‘preference status’ of a free trade
zone that Agfa was operating,
making aluminum imports now
also subject to a 3% customs
duty,” said Gunther Mertens,
President, Region North America,
Agfa Graphics. “Th e impact on
Agfa is a 13% cost increase on our
aluminum imports—aluminum
is the single biggest cost element
in manufacturing off set printing
plates.”
Th e point of the tariff , it has been
said, was to impel U.S. companies
to switch to domestic sources of
aluminum. Unfortunately, for the
grade needed for plates, that’s not
an option. “Th ere is no manufacturer
of lithographic aluminum
in the United States,” said Rindo.
“Alcoa was the last one and even
in one of their most recent SEC
fi lings, said they had no intention
of being in that marketplace. So
for all practical purposes, we
have no choice but to import litho
aluminum.”
Th ere is an out, however. If there is no domestic source of
aluminum, a company can apply for an exemption to the tariff ,
which both Kodak and Agfa have done, and both are awaiting a
response. But: enter bureaucracy.
“Th e administration has provided a process through the
Department of Commerce (DOC) whereby a company can make
the case that there is no domestically available alternative
source, and then they might be excluded from the imposition of
tariff s,” said Mark Nuzzaco, Vice President, Government Aff airs
for the Association for Print Technologies (APTech). “Th ere is
an elaborate bureaucratic process set up to handle that and
thousands of requests have come in.” According to APTech’s
sleuthing, as of mid-July, there have been 2,166 exclusion
requests, of which 113 have been granted and 110 denied, none
of which have been from APTech members so far; 1,943 are still
pending. “Th ere’s clearly a fantastic mismatch of applications
and resources to evaluate them and a long waiting line to get
into,” said Nuzzaco.
Part of the problem is that a company can’t fi le a company
wide exemption; it has to fi le a separate exemption for each
individual product they want to exclude. “So that means you
have to give them a detailed laundry list of materials that you’re
seeking,” said Nuzzaco. For some plate manufacturers that
means dozens or more exclusion requests.
In mid-June Nuzzaco met and corresponded with DOC offi -
cials to clarify the exclusion process. Th e DOC confi rmed that
industry associations cannot fi le exemptions on behalf of an
industry; they must be submitted by individual companies. Another
sticking point is that even if an exemption is granted, it’s
only in eff ect for 12 months, aft er which the application process
needs to be repeated. APTech is continuing its dialogue with the
By Richard Romano
Richard Romano has been writing
about the graphic communications
industry for 20 years. He is an industry
analyst and author or co-author
of more than half a dozen books.
His most recent book is The Home
Offi ce That Works! Make Working
at Home a Success—A Guide for
Entrepreneurs and Telecommuters,
www.homeoffi ceworks.com.
Shutterstock
34 Printing News August 2018 PrintingNewscom
/PrintingNews.com
/www.homeofficeworks.com