E-Malt.com News article: Canada: Aluminium tariffs leave Canadian brewers suffering from domestic can supply

For Canada’s beer industry, the most difficult part of going local isn’t the hops or the barley, it’s the can. As the US tariffs on aluminium near their one-year mark, breweries say packaging has become one of the most stubborn and expensive obstacles in their supply chains, ALCircle reported on February 9.

The challenge is not rooted in the scarcity of raw material. Canada remains a major producer of primary aluminium. What’s missing is domestic manufacturing capacity for certain widely used beer can formats, including the 473-millilitre tall can that dominates the craft beer market.

That gap became evident during a recent initiative by Ottawa-based Dominion City Brewing, which set out to produce a beer made entirely from Canadian inputs. While the ingredients inside the can meet that goal, the container itself did not. With no local option available, the brewery sourced its cans from the United States.

However, Josh McJannet, co-founder of Dominion City Brewing, believes that there are no Canadian-made alternatives for some of these cans, and hence, sourcing them domestically is nearly impossible.

Reliance on the US suppliers has become increasingly costly since aluminium and steel tariffs were reinstated and expanded. Originally introduced at 25 per cent, the tariffs were raised to 50 per cent before taking effect on March 13, 2025. As the policy approaches its first anniversary, breweries say the impact has been sustained rather than temporary.

McJannet said the cost of a single aluminium can has risen from roughly 15 cents to about 35 cents. Similar increases are being reported across the sector, with some breweries experiencing aluminium price hikes of more than 60 per cent. The effect is amplified by the fact that close to 80 percent of beer sold in Canada is packaged in aluminium cans.

According to Richard Alexander, president of Beer Canada, aluminium remains one of the few materials still subject to tariffs, even as many other goods move freely between Canada and the United States. He points to a supply chain that crosses borders multiple times before cans ever reach breweries.

Much of Canada’s aluminium is smelted domestically but sent to the US for processing into can sheet, then shipped back to Canada for final manufacturing. Each border crossing adds cost, and under the current tariff regime, those costs accumulate quickly.

While industry leaders are quite focused on building a fully domestic aluminium can supply chain, there are still some significant barriers. After all, producing can sheets need substantial investment, and Canada’s relatively limited domestic demand makes large-scale facilities difficult to justify economically.


09 February, 2026