American brewers and beer drinkers were foaming at the mouth...

[mia]

Trump proposes tariffs on steel, aluminum to counter foreign competition; beer makers, pols outraged

American brewers and beer drinkers were foaming at the mouth Thursday after President Trump proposed a tariff on aluminum imports.

The protectionist measure, geared toward helping the steel and aluminum industries, will lead to a spike in beer prices and layoffs, brewers said.

“American workers and American consumers will suffer as a result of this misguided tariff,” MillerCoors, the country’s second largest beer maker tweeted. “It is likely to lead to job losses across the beer industry.”

The Beer Institute, a trade association and D.C. drink tank, said the 10% hike on aluminum would cost the industry $347.7 million and more than 20,000 jobs.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-impose-tariffs-steel-aluminum-imports-article-1.3849233

[VMA131Marine]

1. I'm not seeing it

There is 1.7 cents worth of aluminium in a beer or soda can. A 10% increase in the price of aluminium will therefore increase the price of the can by less than 0.2 cents.

What am I missing?

[nycbos]

2. A beer can is not the issue.

If you ever visited a brewery the large tanks where they make the beer come from aluminum. Those probably weigh a cupple hundred pounds. Which contain more than 1.7 worth of aluminum.

[zipplewrath]

3. Nothing

Beer is priced on what the market will bear. The market for beer isn't changing because of this. Not to mention bottles.

[Caliman73]

4. 67 billion cans of beer are consumed every year.

Industry wide an increase of 0.2 cents would be about 13.4 billion dollars. Do you think that manufacturers are going to eat that?

[VMA131Marine]

5. I don't think the manufacturers will eat the increase

They'll increase the price of beer by 1 cent per can and nobody will notice.

[SidDithers]

6. And increase their margin in the meantime...nt

Sid

[Blue Owl]

7. Growlers to the rescue!

[matt819]

8. Brewery equipment

As well as the billions of cans.

I had a boss once whose company had just over 200 employees. I suggested that he should increase salaries by $.25/hour. Seemed a small thing. This was before I ran my own business.

He told me to do the math. 175 salaried employees, 40 hours a week, $.25 an hour. $1,750 per week extra, $91,000 a year.

So, take your tens of billions of cans, add even a fraction of a penny, and you're talking about real money.

Also, I saw a statistic on instagram the other day that in 1980 there were 50 breweries in the US. Today there are 28,000. There was an article in the NYT, I think, observing that micro-breweries have been responsible for increased economic vitality throughout the country. And increase in the cost of brewing equipment could be the deciding factor for a new micro brewer to decide to try something else.

IOW, the knock-on effects are damn near endless.