00:00In the sweltering U.S. summer, metal containers decorated with snowman and sleighs are taking
00:07shape. But tempers are also rising as their manufacturers grapple with President Donald
00:12Trump's steep steel tariffs. At Independent Gans factory in Belkamp, Maryland northeast of
00:20Baltimore, CEO Rick Huther recounts how he started working at his family's business at age 14.
00:28Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump imposed tariffs of 25% on imported steel
00:35and aluminum and then doubled the rate to 50%. Right now we're holding off on investments,
00:42waiting to see the consistency of the policy versus the up and down and off and on.
00:49We're living in chaos right now. We don't know how to plan.
00:53This has weighed in operations at Independent Gans and Huther expects he eventually will have to
00:59raise prices. With a steady beat of presses, steel plates that have been coated with tin to prevent
01:07corrosion are turned into containers for cookies, dried fruit, coffee and milk powder at Huther's
01:14factory. But there is not enough of such American-made tin plate for companies like this.
01:20And in the United States, we can only make about 25% of the tin plate that's required to do what we do
01:28and what the sanitary people do and the aerosol people and the paint can people.
01:33Those all require us to buy in the neighborhood of 70% of our steel outside of the United States.
01:39Trump has announced a stream of major tariffs only to let it back off parts of them or postpone them
01:48and also impose duties on items the country does not produce.
01:52Right now, the tariffs are a challenge because we don't make the product here and we're tariffing
01:59things which ends up just being a tax for the people. If things that are not made here should not
02:03be tariffs. For now, Independent CAN, which employs nearly 400 people at four sites,
02:09is ruling out any layoffs despite the current upheaval. But Huther said one of the companies
02:17plant in Lowa closed last year in part because of a previous increase in steel tariffs during Trump's
02:24first presidential term. I think it is threatened by this. I think that our business will survive.
02:32There are things that have to be in metal just because of the longevity of the package on the
02:37shelf. It can last much longer in metal than other packages. But there may be some things that disappear
02:42and go to other alternative packaging. So we'll survive. It may cost jobs. We did close our plant in
02:50Iowa a year ago because of the tariffs that we're already in. With steel tariffs at 50% now, Huther
02:57expects he will ultimately have to raise his prices by more than 50% given that tin plate represents a
03:04part of his production costs. Some buyers have already reduced their orders this year by 20 to 25%
03:12over worries about the economy and about not having enough business themselves.
03:16So if a can is 50% steel and the 25% tariffs went in, you're going up about 12.5%.
03:24We did, through the first set of tariffs, absorb quite a bit of it. But now that we're getting to
03:2950%, we can't absorb that and remain in business. Others now seem more inclined to buy American.
03:37But Huther expressed reservations over how long this trend might last, citing his experiences from
03:44the COVID-19 crisis. Huther wants to believe that his company, which is almost a century old,
03:50after being founded during the Great Depression, will weather the latest disruptions.
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