8 June 2026 MEDIA RELEASE

ALENZ welcomes the launch of a trade investigation into serious harm suffered by the industry from a surge in allegedly subsidised/dumped imports.

In February 2026,  ALENZ applied to the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment for urgent Safeguard measures, a trade remedy used to counter such situations, to be put in place.

Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Cameron Brewer has agreed to support the application and asked MBIE to launch an investigation into the case.

MBIE initiated the Safeguard application on Thursday 28 May, more details can be found on MBIE’s website.

“We are very pleased that the Minister has recognised the gravity of the situation and we will be supporting the Trade Remedies team in every way we can,” says ALENZ Chair Nick Collins.

“All we are asking for is a level playing field with aluminium extrusion imports as other nations such as Australia and the EU have done with Tariff/Safeguard protections for local producers.”

New Zealand’s aluminium extruders are unique globally in that they operate without any tariff protection and work under some of the world’s most stringent environmental, labour, and compliance standards.

“Our competitors all benefit from different levels of state support, particularly heavily subsidised economies where trade distortions allow products to be sold below the true cost of production.

As a result, in the past five years alone the volume imports of aluminium extrusions like those made in New Zealand have surged by 40 percent, with a concurrent decline in per-unit import values and exports.

Additionally, imports in the first three months of 2026 have soared a further 33 percent above the same period last year.

“Every other aluminium producing economy has taken steps to ensure fair trading conditions, imposing tariffs and protections on imported aluminium extrusions.”

US tariffs impose a 50% cost on aluminium imports, the EU recently increased safeguard protection for local aluminium manufacture from 25% to 50% and Australia has varying rates of tariffs for aluminium imports.

“New Zealand producers are forced to operate in an unfair trade environment that is eroding their profits along with domestic market share and suppressing fair competition putting a strategically important industry at risk.

“If this capability is lost, New Zealand becomes fully dependent on imports for critical building, transport and infrastructure products, let alone the significant wider impacts.”

Mr Collins says New Zealand’s aluminium extrusion industry not only contributes more than $6 billion to the economy, underpins thousands of high-value jobs and enables significant downstream business activity, but produces some of the world’s lowest carbon extrusions.

“The surge in imports is nothing to do with any failure on the industry’s part. It’s one of the most efficient in the world and has invested more than $120 million over the last five years.

“The Safeguard action we are seeking is nothing novel, it’s an existing trade remedy that will give our local manufacturers a level playing field that allows them to compete with subsidised/dumped imports.

“Given that, they are ready to invest a further $218 million in technological advancement, efficiency and decarbonisation while building skills and capability to maintain a local manufacturing base to helping building resilience in the domestic economy.”

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