President Donald Trump warned he may place tariffs on Canadian dairy and lumber in the coming days. It’s the latest in a string of tariffs that causing many industries to adjust to rising costs. NBC 5’s Vince Sims visited a manufacturer in Burleson to see how the owner is planning ahead.
KWS Manufacturing in Burleson builds conveyor equipment.
“We started with about 25, maybe 30, people, 22 years ago, and now we're pushing 160, 170 employees,” KWS President Bill Mecke said.
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WATCH HEREMecke would like to see continued growth, but he said current tariffs could threaten that.
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SIGN UP “We look at it pretty much on a daily basis, and you can see the curve is accelerating,” Mecke said describing steel prices.
Mecke said current tariffs have already lifted steel prices higher.
“We're seeing raw material prices accelerate pretty rapidly again,” Mecke said. “They're up anywhere between 20 to 30% right now, and it's hard to tell where that's going to stop.”
For now, Mecke is laser-focused on budgeting and bidding for projects. He has to pass some of that cost on to customers.
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“As we're bidding the projects we use the most current pricing for stainless or for steel,” Mecke said. “But if the steel prices are up, we have to include that in our bid.”
Although he’s having to navigate the impact of the tariffs he said there are some positives happening for his industry.
“We're seeing an increase because of some of this reshoring where they're bringing manufacturing back to the United States,” Mecke said. “We’re seeing more manufacturing facilities, plants being built in the U.S. and of course, they need our types of equipment and many other types of equipment.”
That spark of economic hope has Mecke stocking up on extra material.
"We're ordering more now to get ahead of the pricing,” Mecke said while showing a pile of metal. “So, this is excess material that we can't even fit into our racks."
Mecke is confident the industry will survive, but he's hoping the rough edges of the latest trade wars will all be smoothed over soon.
“The uncertainty makes everybody nervous,” Mecke said. “What every manufacturer in the United States wants is stability, and the talk of tariffs creates instability.”
