Thousands of skilled regional jobs are at risk, unless the Government puts a stop to cheap aluminium imports flooding into the country, according to an industry group.
Aluminium extrusions are shaped components that can be used in windows, door frames and thousands of other construction and everyday times.
The local industry says there has been a 38 percent increase in low cost imports of the products in the past year, with New Zealand becoming a dumping ground.
MBIE launched an investigation in May.
But the Aluminium Extruders Association wants the Government to impose a temporary import duty to stem the flow, or New Zealand risked losing jobs it can not replace.
Cheap aluminium imports putting regional jobs at risk
Aluminium Extruders Association chair Nick Collins told Checkpoint that New Zealand was out of step with every comparable trading partner, which all acknowledged that the aluminium industry was strategically important to their economies.
“We are sitting there, completely open to imports.”
He said it was not a matter of competition, and was not free or fair trade.
“Imports are flooding into the country, and a large proportion of these imports are coming in below the cost of the raw material that is a globally traded commodity that every extruder needs to buy.
“This is not a failing industry in New Zealand, it’s not asking to be propped up, it’s asking government to act and use what is a legal safeguard that already exists in law.”
Collins said without action, the country will gradually see the loss of critically important businesses and jobs.
“Already our members are working fewer shifts, they haven’t laid people off because they are largely skilled people, some of whom have worked a very long time for those businesses and we will never recover the workforce if you start to cut it.”
New Zealand could not afford to lose any more critical manufacturing after closures of work processing, pulp and canning factories in the past year, said Collins.
“Without local manufacturing, you miss the flexibility, the short lead times, the small order sizes, and the ability to innovate and quickly develop new products.”
He said the industry just needed a temporary measure to enable it to respond to the “abnormal situation we find ourselves in”.
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Cameron Brewer said after receiving advice about introducing provisional duties he had decided not to impose them at this stage.
The wider investigation into imports of aluminium extrusion imports is ongoing and MBIE is expected to report to the minister later this month.