It´s too early to know if his bluff has been called. But…Donald Trump´s sweeping tariffs of 25% against Canada and Mexico – delivered with such fanfare on Saturday – were gone by Monday, struck down by resistance from Canada. One is reminded of Act III in Hamlet: “Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?” Perhaps the retaliatory tariffs announced by the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, forced Trump into a rethink. Or at least a pause, as he plots his next move. What more villainy might Trump enact as he strides the world´s stage in search of adulation? Hard to predict, but his evident delight in foisting economic pain upon others is macabre. Meanwhile, as the Australian steel industry awaits the fall-out from Trump´s global trade war, we continue to battle domestically with a housing shortage which, if solved, would be a boon to steel distributors and steel retailers. On this point, figures released on February 3^rd by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed a slight increase of 0.7% last December in the total number of dwellings approved in Australia – following a fall of 3.4% last November. ASN 

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readers will be aware the Albanese government has committed to the target of building 1.2 million homes over five years from mid-2024 under the National Housing Accord. Thus far some of the news is good. According to the ABS, in the first three months of the Accord, construction commenced on 43,247 new homes. Over the period to September 2024, the number of new homes commencing construction reached 165,048. However, this was well below the 200,000 required to be on track to meet the Accord´s objective. “If building activity continues at this pace, Australia will commence construction on just over 825,000 new homes over the five years. This is around 350,000 new homes short of the National Housing Accord target,” says Master Builders Australia CEO, Denita Wawn. She says one of the solutions to the problem is to increase the amount of skilled labour available in Australia, by encouraging local apprenticeships and allowing more skilled migration. On which point, in late January the Albanese government announced a long-awaited incentive. Under its new Key Apprentices Program, from July 2025 eligible apprentices in the residential construction sector will receive a $10,000 incentive payment, on top of their wages. Payments will be made at stages during the apprenticeship years and then finally upon competition. Historically, about 50% of all apprentices don´t complete their training. The government expects the $10,000 incentive and its staged payments system will see the rate of completions increase significantly.

In other news, the Australian Steel Institute (ASI) has said two of its initiatives have improved opportunities for its steel fabricator and manufacturer members to supply to the NSW Government. First, the government has endorsed a number of ASI recommendations in relation to procurement practices for government agencies. In an effort to protect local manufacturers from low-priced imports, these include: 

• tenders being compliant with minimum wage, modern slavery requirements, helping to level the playing field with imports coming from non-market economies 
• tenders being broken down into smaller parts to better enable small businesses to participate 
• government agencies to consider product lifecycle in their procurement needs analysis and specifications. This includes ensuring reuse, repurposing, recycling and disposal of goods.

In the second initiative, the NSW Government has issued a Procurement Board Directive (PBD) requiring its agencies to state in decision-making documents (for tender processes for projects or contracts with a budget of $7.5 million or more) why a local supplier was not selected if one was available. The purpose of this direction is to ensure local suppliers are provided a full and fair opportunity to compete for government contracts. NSW Government agencies were required to implement the PBD no later than 1 January, 2025.

Elsewhere, the Australian Government has announced a $2 billion credit plan to fast-track the domestic aluminium industry’s conversion to produce green aluminium. The “Green Aluminium Production Credit” will be made available over 2028-2029. Eligible facilities will get “support for every tonne of clean, reliable Australian-made aluminium they make over a period of 10 years,” the Department of Industry, Science and Resources said on January 20. The credits are expected to be implemented via contracts with the three domestic producers: Alcoa, Rio Tinto and Tomago Aluminium. The Government has yet to announce the precise dollar-for-dollar value of the credits.

“Today’s announcement is an important step in support of the industry’s transition to the competitive, reliable, lower-carbon energy needed for the aluminium industry to secure a sustainable future,” said Marghanita Johnson, CEO of the Australian Aluminium Council. “We are at the very centre of Australian manufacturing, providing nearly 600,000 tonnes of aluminium each year right here in the Hunter region,” said Jerome Dozol, CEO of Tomago Aluminium. “This sits in line with our firm commitment to decarbonize our aluminium smelting operations by 2035,” he added. Australia is the world’s sixth largest aluminium producer.

Finally, a call to all scrap metal businesses. In March, our website AustralianSteel.com will publish a Special Product Feature focussing on the scrap metal industry. Any businesses who want to appear in the feature should make contact with our national advertising manager, Henna Arcadi, on 0415640645. There will be a further Special Product Feature in April dealing with steel fabrication.