TIMMINS — While the ongoing trade war is impacting a local business, it's making the most of a chaotic time.
The Bucket Shop is a Timmins-based mining supplier known for its innovative, custom-built products, which require imported steel from the United States and cast alloys from China. The recent unpredictable extra costs have them working to build a made-in-Ontario supply chain.
The Canadian government's retaliatory tariffs to the U.S. mean the price of the highly specialized steel to make their products goes up 25 per cent as it crosses the border, while imports from China have a 10 per cent tariff.
“The circumstance is unpredictable, as is the person that keeps changing his mind on tariffs or not. We’re all living in a bit of a chaotic, unpredictable time. But our government is supporting us as the supply chain and is supporting the mining sector," said Jamie Pouw, business optimization lead for The Bucket Shop.
When the federal and provincial leaders talk, he's interested in how they talk about the value of critical minerals, specifically in the Ring of Fire.
"That value as the next 80 to 100 years of mining, along with Canada Nickel for the next 100 years, they truly are protecting that portion of the country. For us to be in that supply chain for the next number of years is very, very compelling because our future looks really, really good,” he said.
The Bucket Shop's "playground", said Pouw, is Northern Ontario. There's only one way their products go stateside, and when they do, it's through a Western Canada dealer network.
For importing steel to Canada, there are only two foundries that produce the plate needed to build hardrock mining buckets and boxes — one in Alabama, and one in Sweden.
Because of the technology used at the Alabama foundry, the steel is harder and more consistent every time than what is produced at Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie.
"And here’s the other cool part, you usually measure the hardness on the surface of a piece of steel. They show us that that hardness number is the same in the middle of the steel as it is on the surface. So now we have a really, really predictable wear rate,” he said.
Being able to accurately predict how many hours a product will last creates a predictable schedule for the mine.
The American foundry also removes the mill scale and primes the steel before it's shipped.
"So now in Timmins, if it sits outside in the winter before we use it, it comes in ready to use, we don’t need to clean it. It’s got a really unique characteristic that there is no company in Canada that does it quite like they do. As much as we’d love to buy Canadian, that’s why we rely on that particular steel,” said Pouw.
The 25 per cent tariff to source materials is adding to the company's cost structure, which ultimately adds to the customer's costs.
"We’ve made a corporate agreement to help absorb some of the tariff implications. To the credit of our provincial and federal governments, they have programs in place to offset tariff implications,” he said.
It's the products being imported from China that The Bucket Shop sees as a potential made-in-Ontario solution.
Most of their raw material is specialized cast alloys from China. They had to source from abroad eight years ago when the Canadian foundry closed.
“We, as The Bucket Shop in the supply chain of the mining sector in Ontario, are looking to domestic foundry support and we are reviewing alternatives within the province to move the foundry production to Ontario. We’re doing it with the support and the knowledge of both the provincial and federal governments,” he said.
Ultimately, said Pouw, President Donald Trump's trade war is reinforcing what's great about Ontario and Canada.
"And we’re now starting to exploit that greatness,” he said.
