Wilbur Ross's Tariff Math Draws Scorn From CEO of Novelis

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross sees cost concerns over metals tariffs as hysteria. The world's biggest maker of flat-rolled aluminum products sees surging costs.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he plans to impose a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports after an inquiry sparked by U.S. producer complaints that they were hobbled by lower-cost output from China and other countries. Steve Fisher, chief executive officer of Atlanta-based Novelis Inc., said he doesn't support the move.

Fisher joins a chorus of aluminum and steel consumers who warn that increasing costs would hurt the manufacturing industries Trump has said he wants to help, leading to tens of thousands of job losses. Ross said in a Bloomberg TV interview last week that “all this hysteria is a lot to do about nothing.” The cost of items such as Campbell's Soup cans and Coke cans will increase by less than a cent, according to Ross.

“You can see it in many examples and you can play it down by a single can and make it sound insignificant,” Fisher said in a telephone interview. “But when you do the math, about 88 billion cans, 17 million vehicles and all the steel and aluminum used across applications, it's significant inflation.”

Researcher Harbor Intelligence said last week that while the tariffs would increase upstream aluminum jobs by about 1,900, as many as 90,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs would be lost. Fisher said the company continues to press the Commerce Department and Trump administration on the issue through letters.

Harbor expects aluminum premiums to rise 38 percent, according to a note last week. The premium is the amount added to the London Metal Exchange price for aluminum delivered to the U.S. Midwest region.

Novelis is a unit of Mumbai-based Hindalco Industries Ltd.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Deaux in New York at jdeaux@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Attwood at jattwood3@bloomberg.net, Joe Richter, Steven Frank

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