The government has refused to shield New Zealand’s aluminium extrusion industry from a surge of cheap imports, mostly from China, and the industry says the decision puts around 1,000 jobs in Hamilton, New Plymouth and Wellington at immediate risk.
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Cameron Brewer made the call on 5 October and it was published in the New Zealand Gazette on 13 October. He declined an application from the Aluminium Extruders Association of New Zealand for a safeguard measure, which would have allowed temporary tariffs or quotas on imported extrusions for up to four years. RNZ reported that the minister acted on a Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment report which found the legal threshold for a safeguard had not been met.
Extruders take raw aluminium, much of it from the Tiwai Point smelter, and press it into the profiles used for window and door frames, truck bodies, boats, scaffolding and building facades. The association values the industry at about $600 million a year, or about $2 billion once powder coating, anodising, fabricating and window manufacturing are counted. Its application to the ministry said the sector supports almost 2,000 direct jobs and more than 6,000 indirect ones, mostly in Waikato and Taranaki.
The ministry accepted that the industry has suffered serious injury. Domestic output has fallen by around 40 per cent in two years and imports have climbed from 46 per cent of local production in 2022 to 54 per cent in 2025. But officials concluded the import surge was only one cause among several, alongside a shrinking domestic market and rising costs, and that a safeguard would probably push up prices for consumers and run against New Zealand’s wider trade goals.
Brewer defended the decision on Newstalk ZB on Thursday, saying investigators had spent 85 days on the report and it did not meet the threshold for him to sign off a measure. He said imports alone were not causing the damage, pointing to lower construction activity, rising production costs and waning business and consumer confidence.
The industry does not accept that reasoning. Association chair Nick Collins told RNZ the decision had removed a vital lifeline from businesses already under severe pressure. “We are saddened and extremely disappointed. These are productive, high-tech businesses being crushed by imports, primarily state-subsidised from China and sold in New Zealand for less than the cost of the raw aluminium they contain.”
Dave Slomp, managing director of McKechnie Aluminium in New Plymouth, one of the country’s largest extruders, told Newstalk ZB that Chinese extrusion is landing in New Zealand for less than local manufacturers pay for the raw billet they press it from. “While we understand that ministers take advice from their officials, there’s no question in our mind that Mr Brewer has thrown a whole industry sector under the bus.”
The decision has also opened a rift inside the governing coalition three weeks out from the election. New Zealand First issued a statement on 13 October calling the ruling “a serious backward step” and arguing it should never have been made during the pre-election period. “We are in the election restraint period and no decisions such as this should even be contemplated until after the election,” the party said. It noted that the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union and Australia have all moved to protect their own extruders, and said all nine of New Zealand’s extrusion presses are now at risk.
E tÅ«, the union representing workers at the plants, called the decision a betrayal. National secretary Rachel Mackintosh said in a statement that the minister had the evidence in front of him and chose not to act. “MBIE agrees this industry is being seriously harmed. The Minister has that in black and white and he’s walked away anyway.” She said some members have worked on the same site for 30 years, and that unemployment at 5.6 per cent is already the highest in more than a decade.
Officials had said it was too early to know whether the surge in imports would continue. Mackintosh said the plants may not survive the wait. “Our members can’t afford to wait. By the time officials are sure, these plants could be gone. Once they close, they don’t reopen.” She warned that the cost would not stop at the factory gate. “If we lose the ability to make these products here, we lose it for good. Every builder and manufacturer in the country will be stuck with offshore prices and shipping delays.”
The union cited ministry figures showing extrusion imports jumped 34 per cent in the first seven months of this year. The association had earlier put the rise at 38 per cent over the year to September, and said members had cut shifts but not yet laid off staff. It is calling on every party to commit to revisiting the decision after the election.
The safeguard route was always a high bar. Safeguards apply to imports from every country at once, regardless of whether the exporter is pricing fairly, so the Trade (Safeguard Measures) Act 2014 requires the minister to be satisfied that imports are the cause of serious injury and that the surge was unforeseen. The ministry found neither test was met, and said a measure would reduce the price competitiveness of imports and narrow supplier choice for the fabricators, builders and manufacturers who buy extrusions. Cheaper imported profiles have helped hold down building costs at a time when construction costs are rising at their fastest pace since 2022.
This is the second time the industry has been turned down. In September, Brewer declined to impose provisional duties while the investigation ran, saying there was too little time left to show that a delay would cause damage that was hard to repair. The investigation itself began on 28 May, after the association lodged its application in January, and the ministry delivered its final report to the minister on 24 September.
The industry’s remaining option is an anti-dumping complaint, which targets specific exporters selling below their home-market price rather than all imports at once. That process is slower and narrower, and the ministry’s current list of goods subject to anti-dumping or countervailing duties runs to just five items, four of them fruit products.
For the extruders in Hamilton, New Plymouth and Wellington, the question now is whether their plants can hold on through a weak construction market and a flood of cheap product until a new government decides whether to look again. The association says New Zealand would become fully dependent on imports for critical building, transport and infrastructure products if the capability is lost.
Should New Zealand protect its aluminium extruders from cheap imports, or do lower prices for builders and manufacturers matter more? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job ð
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