The Imported
Aluminium Crisis

Why local aluminium matters

Aluminium extrusions are the profiles used in windows, doors, building facades, transport and countless manufactured products. In New Zealand, local extruders give businesses short lead times, consistent quality and technical support close to home.

At McKechnie’s New Plymouth site, remelting, extrusion, surface finishing, value-add fabrication and quality checks all happen under one roof. This capability supports thousands of jobs directly, as well as many more across businesses that rely on a reliable local supply. Keeping this capability in New Zealand is about more than one industry. It’s about supply chain resilience and preserving the country’s manufacturing base.

What’s happening: The import surge

New Zealand’s aluminium extrusion industry is facing growing pressure from imported products amid changing global market conditions. These include:

• State subsidies: Aluminium is one of the most subsidised industries in the world, with the OECD estimating that China applied at least US$10 billion in state subsidies to its aluminium sector in 2025 alone.
• Excess production capacity: China now has approximately 7,000 extrusion presses, compared with New Zealand’s nine.
• Declining construction activity: Chinese construction activity fell from 2 billion square metres of space in 2021 to less than 600 million in 2025, contributing to a significant decline in domestic demand.
• Export incentives: Domestic rebate and subsidy settings in China encourage exports of finished products over exports of aluminium billet.
• Trade protections overseas: Other significant aluminium-producing countries have introduced trade remedies to address unfairly traded imports, while New Zealand has not implemented equivalent measures for aluminium extrusions.

Over the past decade, dumped, subsidised and predatory-priced imported extrusions have taken a growing share of the New Zealand market. Finished extrusions are reportedly arriving in New Zealand for less than the globally traded price of the raw aluminium required to manufacture them.

New Zealand extruders operate at world-class levels of quality, service and productivity, but no unsubsidised producer can compete fairly when imported products are priced at these levels.

Key figures

• 2015: Imports accounted for around 5% of the New Zealand market.
• 2025: Imports accounted for around 25% of the market.
• 2026 to date: Imports are tracking at around one-third of the market.
• 143%: Increase in hollow extrusions imported from China this year.

In early 2026, the Aluminium Extruders Association of New Zealand (ALENZ), of which McKechnie is a member, applied for a safeguard measure.

What is a safeguard?

When imports cause harm to a local industry, governments have three main trade remedies available under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules:

• Safeguards: Respond to a sudden surge in imports that causes serious injury to a domestic industry. They are generally the fastest of the three measures.
• Anti-dumping duties: Apply when products are exported at less than their fair value.
• Countervailing duties: Offset the effects of subsidies paid by foreign governments.

The decision

In October 2026, Commerce Minister Cameron Brewer declined to impose a safeguard, following advice from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) that the legal threshold had not been met.

MBIE’s report acknowledged that the local industry had suffered serious injury. However, it attributed that injury mainly to other factors over the 2022–2025 investigation period, including lower construction activity, rising production costs and weaker business confidence.

Why the industry sees it differently

New Zealand’s extruders recognise that the past few years have been challenging. Many have been operating for decades. McKechnie alone has been operating for nearly 75 years, through the Global Financial Crisis, COVID-19, oil shocks and other economic challenges.

However, the industry believes the current situation is different from a normal economic cycle, and several questions remain:

• Why are imports rising in a shrinking market? If demand is contracting, it is difficult to explain why imports are growing so sharply and taking a larger share of a smaller market.
• What about price suppression? Products arriving below the cost of their raw materials put pressure on prices across the market. This can contribute to rising costs and lower margins, even when imports are an underlying cause.
• How has New Zealand’s trade relationship with China factored in? New Zealand’s exports to China are important. However, Australia sends a larger share of its exports to China than New Zealand does, while also implementing trade remedies against dumped aluminium extrusions and recently making a preliminary finding of dumping against imported aluminium windows.

How other countries have responded

Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and Canada have substantial trade remedies in place against unfairly traded aluminium imports. Each maintains strong trade relationships with China.

New Zealand’s extruders are not asking to be protected from fair competition. They believe the industry should be treated consistently with producers in other countries and given the opportunity to compete on a level playing field.

As Dave Slomp, Managing Director of McKechnie Aluminium Solutions, puts it, New Zealand has a world-class industry that can compete with anyone under fair trade conditions.

What happens next?

The safeguard decision does not close the door on further action.

McKechnie and ALENZ intend to challenge the decision, arguing that the information provided by MBIE contains inaccuracies and has been incorrectly interpreted from both commercial and legal perspectives.

Anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations also remain available. These measures have been used successfully by comparable countries, although they take longer and have their own legal thresholds. The Minister has indicated that MBIE will work with the industry if it pursues these options.

ALENZ is considering its next steps. McKechnie will update this page as developments occur.

For more information

Further updates, supporting interviews and relevant articles will be added as they become available.