Poilievre highlights U.S. tariff pressures during visit to Hamilton manufacturer Sobotec

A metal manufacturing company in Hamilton’s east end says while their bottom line is certainly feeling the effects of U.S. tariffs, they are still moving forward.

Even scoring a few major American projects, including one with the new Buffalo Bills stadium.

The company also hosted a visit on Friday for Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

Sobotec in the city’s east end has been around since 1988 and they are still going strong today, but the company says recent U.S. tariffs have had a big impact.

“We are extremely affected by tariffs, business continues to go well, but the problem is our ability to compete in the US is getting eroded,” said Chedo Sobot, a principal at Sobotec Ltd. “The tariffs are affecting our pricing down there, affecting their ability to get aluminum down there. We are managing, but it’s tougher to compete down to the U.S.”

Sobotec is North America’s largest processor of metal composite panels.

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The Hamilton company not only helped build part of the new McMaster tower in the city’s downtown, but also New York’s LaGuardia Airport and they are currently working on the new home of the Buffalo Bills.

“Yes, we are finishing up the Highmark Stadium — the Buffalo Bills stadium. It’s a big contract for us,” said Sobot. “We’ve built a great reputation over the years, we are an extremely good engineering company, we do all our work in house — among the biggest in North America.”

Poilievre stopped by Sobotec Friday as part of his tour visiting local companies.

“We love to see these kinds of success stories,” said Poilievre, “and it reiterates why we need to remove the industrial carbon tax, remove red tape and empower our business to make more, hire more and sell more to the world.”

Despite the bottom line difficulties presented by U.S. tariffs, Sobotec has maintained its shifts and has not had to let anyone go.

“We have a lot of people here, we have two shifts going — we want to continue that and want to continue it here in Hamilton and do work here in Canada and the U.S. because we have that capacity,” said Sodot. “We want to maintain our capacity.”

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