By Scott Hamilton
Feb. 10, 2025, © Leeham News: President Donald Trump announced plans to impose a 25% tariff on imported aluminum and steel this week, including from the USA’s largest supplying countries: Canada and Mexico.
According to Trump’s weekend announcement, China will be tagged with a 10% tariff. Other countries also export these products to the USA, but Trump didn’t mention any.
In the aerospace industry, Boeing and Airbus will be affected. So will suppliers to the two companies.
Boeing produced about 300 aluminum aircraft last year, each consuming about 30 tons in production, or 9,000 tons for 2024. For 2025, LNA estimates Boeing will produce 500 aluminum aircraft. At 30 tons per aircraft, this is 15,000 tons of high-grade aluminum alloys.
Spirit AeroSystems’ US operations is one of the largest content suppliers of wing systems for the Airbus A320 family and a significant supplier for the Airbus A350 XWB, according to its financial filings. Under Spirit’s supply agreement with Airbus for the A320 and A330, “we supply products for the life of the aircraft program. For the A350 XWB program, we have long-term requirement contracts with Airbus.”
CNBC has a chart showing alternative country producers of aluminum and steel. Shipping costs and the extra time in shipping from such distances must be factored in.
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