Hampton Lumber is assuring its employees, regional First Nations and the community at large that they are working on all avenues to mitigate against the threat of economy-wide U.S. tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
These tariffs have already been delayed multiple times, but the current administration's latest comments on Feb. 27 now have the tariffs scheduled to go into effect on March 4. Hampton Lumber senior director of Canadian operations, Griffin Augustin, knows the business has to be ready for anything, as the tariffs date has changed before and can change again.
"The one thing about the tariffs is that we do not know when they are going to happen until they happen," he said. "Our company has no influence or control over the tariffs or when they would come into effect, so we're cautiously watching, paying attention and trying to understand exactly what that means to the Hampton mills in B.C."
Augustin added that historically, when tariffs come into play, the industry usually finds balance and a way to survive those tough times, and Hampton still feels the same way at this point. At the same time, he also knows that anything can change at a moment's notice.
"We're evaluating every single day, with every announcement that's being made," Augustin said. "We feel the fundamentals of the industry have not changed and that demand for Canadian softwood remains important to the US."
Hampton has a number of other markets outside the U.S., and are continuously looking at how they can attain more market share, whether in Canada or their overseas markets.
The housing crisis in both Canada and south of the border has the potential to offset some of the damage caused by the tariffs, as Augustin believes the overall demand will outpace supply and pricing will likely absorb the tariffs.
Even if this is not the case, Augustin says that Hampton, as an organization, has the ability and wherewithal to evaluate and look at other markets, which is exactly what they are doing.
The company currently have offices in Japan and China and have the ability to access those markets.
"We will continue to focus our attention on safety and operating performance at our mills to give us the best opportunity at maintaining operations for our employees and communities," Augustin added. "As forest policy, duties, tariffs, lumber prices and exchange rate change, we will do our best to adapt, to give ourselves the best opportunity to maintain operations.
"I'd like to make sure the general public knows, at a time like this when there's so much focus and negativity around the business, Hampton does remain optimistic and is grateful to operate in the communities we reside in."
