This opinion piece by our Chair Nick Collins appeared in a range of regional newspapers including Waikato Times, The Post and The Press and online

OPINION: New Zealand’s prosperity relies on free and fair trade, and our trade negotiators have served us well, gaining access to key markets for our primary industry.

But free trade only works when all parties play by the rules. Right now, some are not, and our local manufacturing is paying the price.

Over the past two years, aluminium extrusions (aluminium components formed by pushing aluminium billet, or solid aluminium, through a steel die/ tool in the desired shape) have flooded into New Zealand at prices well below the cost of manufacturing in the country of origin. These are not the result of efficiency but of global oversupply, state subsidisation and closed markets offshore. Left unchecked, this surge threatens the viability of a strategically important New Zealand manufacturing sector.

In response the Aluminium Extruders Association of New Zealand (ALENZ), lodged an application with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment for safeguard action in support of our local manufacturers – a trade remedy designed for situations like this where market distortions cause harm to domestic producers.

MBIE has now initiated an investigation into our application.

New Zealand’s extrusion manufacture is unique – extruders receive no support by way of tariffs, energy rebates or state capital. Every other nation we trade with does one or the other and many both. US tariffs impose a 50% cost on aluminium imports. The EU has recently increased safeguard protection for local aluminium manufacture from 25% to 50% and Australia has varying rates of tariffs for aluminium imports.

Effectively, much of the global aluminium market is closed, yet New Zealand’s market remains wide open. The consequences are stark. Imports of aluminium extrusions have increased by more than 40% over the past five years. In 2024 alone, imports of “hollows” surged by 56% on the previous year.

Over the same period, domestic production has declined by 7.2%, exports by more than two-thirds, and local manufacturers are being undercut by imports priced on average a dollar per kilogram below the cost of manufacture in the country of origin.

The surge in imports has continued in 2026, with volumes 30% ahead of last year during the first four months alone.

This is not a failing industry. Aluminium extrusion manufacture has grown rapidly since it started here in 1949. Five independent extruders now operate, employing 1710 people, supporting some 6,000 jobs across downstream service and manufacturing businesses. These are regional businesses concentrated in Hamilton and New Plymouth, with Hamilton being the second largest aluminium service centre in the southern hemisphere.

Over the past five years alone the sector has invested over $120 million in new plant, equipment and facilities. Most billet is sourced from Tiwai Point, enabling our New Zealand extruders to produce some of the lowest embodied carbon aluminium in the world – on average, one quarter of the embodied carbon of imported alternatives rely heavily on fossil fuels.

Local extrusion manufacturing underpins innovation across construction, marine, transport, and high-value export sectors. From windows and doors, building façades or bespoke componentry ranging from high value small bore rifles to water filtration systems and aftermarket performance car parts.

Globally consumption is growing as aluminium replaces heavier, less resilient structural materials. And our customers depend on close collaboration with our local extruders who punch above their weight in designing and producing world-class products.

Lose this capability, and we weaken far more than one industry.

Over the last decade, exports have fallen from 25% of product manufactured locally, to just 10%, our competitiveness eroded by high energy pricing as well as declining NZ currency against the US dollar.

Meanwhile we compete with trading partners who export below their costs of production.

The Covid pandemic taught New Zealand a hard lesson about supply chain fragility. Resilient local manufacturing sector is not a luxury; it is a strategic asset. Allowing this critical industry to be wiped out by artificially cheap imports would be a failure of policy, not the market.

Safeguards underpin free and fair trade. They are one of three types of trade remedy action available to New Zealand manufacturers to address imported goods that cause material or serious injury.

Safeguards can only be applied to “fairly traded” but low-cost goods where unforeseen import volumes cause injury. Whereas with dumped and/or subsidised goods, dumping or subsidisation must be proved and cause material injury before measures can be applied.

No safeguard action has been taken in New Zealand in the last three decades. Acting now to implement safeguards on aluminium extrusions would not shut the door to trade, but would provide local manufacturers with the time to weather the current uncertain trading environment.

It is not only justified, but also necessary to preserve jobs, regional economies, low-carbon manufacturing, and New Zealand’s long-term industrial resilience.

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