B.C. brewers brace for cost of cans to climb as aluminum tariffs take effect

A Vancouver Island brewery expects tariffs on aluminum and steel to increase the cost of cans.

A Vancouver Island brewery is staring down a surge in annual expenditures, as tariffs targeting aluminum and steel take effect.

Driftwood Brewing Company in Esquimalt, B.C., orders roughly five million aluminum cans each year.

“A 25-per-cent (tariff) would probably increase our spending on cans by about $200,000 a year,” said sales director Gary Lindsay.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum imports went into effect on Wednesday. At 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, Canada will level reciprocal, dollar-for-dollar tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminum.

“It impacts beverage manufacturers all over North America,” Lindsay said.

The B.C. Craft Brewers Guild said much of the aluminum used in drink cans comes from Quebec, but is processed in the U.S.

“It’ll be tariffs on the way down and tariffs on the way back,” said Ken Beattie, executive director of the guild.

“Everything that we do is in steel or aluminum, whether it be the cans, the kegs, or the equipment itself.”

A single can costs between 15 and 25 cents, Beattie said. With the tariffs, he estimated the cost could climb by as much as 10 cents.

The tax comes as the industry grapples with ballooning ingredient costs, which Beattie said have not been passed down to consumers. If the aluminum tariffs remain in place, he suspects brewers may have to start charging more.

“That extra money is worth it because the cost of not supporting B.C. breweries and the cost of not doing anything will be the cost of more breweries closing,” he said. “We’ve closed 15 breweries in 10 months and all of it has to do with cashflow and costs.”

Driftwood expects to feel the impacts of the tariffs within the next month, when it places a new order for cans.

“We’ve survived a lot of things. We survived COVID. We’ve moved our brewery. We’ve been able to grow and expand,” he said. “(I’m) pretty optimistic that this is another cycle of things that we’ve seen come and go.”