Australia news LIVE: Trump rules out Australian exemption from tariffs; High Court rules in favour of native titleholders in compensation case
Australia’s largest aluminium manufacturer, Capral, has been in business for 80 years, producing extruded aluminium for construction and window frames.
Chief executive Tony Dragicevich said imports already supply about 30 per cent of the local aluminium extrusion market, and he expects Trump’s tariffs will increase competition.
“There is no doubt that tariffs will have an impact on the international trade flows, and some of that product will need to find a new home,” Dragicevich said.
Capral employs 1100 people across six manufacturing plants and 22 distribution centres, pulling in $650 million in annual revenue.
Tony Dragicevich, chief executive of Capral Aluminium in Sydney’s Huntingwood.Credit: Louie Douvis
He said the company struggles to compete with imports.“It’s tough when we employ 1100 people and half of them are in manufacturing operations, and we’re paying internationally high wages for quality staff here in Australia, and we’re competing against very low labour cost countries.”
The federal government is investigating ways to strengthen anti-dumping measures to aid local industries such as steel and aluminium following global disruption from Trump’s tariffs.
There is an anti-dumping measure in place now until the end of the year for extruded aluminium from China and local businesses like Capral are adamant that this be extended.
“We’ve got to be vigilant because we have seen what’s happened to very long-standing industries. The car industry was one, but another recent one was Oceania Glass, the last surviving float glass manufacturer in Australia, being put into administration last month partly because the anti-dumping measures they had in place were withdrawn,” Dragicevich said.
