Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My name is Cyrus Jebely. I'm the founder and president of Cap-Thin Molds, a manufacturing company in Mississauga, Ontario.
Good afternoon, members of the committee. I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak with you with regard to the current Canada-U.S. business tariffs, and specifically section 232.
Cap-Thin Molds is a major supplier of high-precision injection moulds, serving the food and beverage, medical and personal care industries. Our company has been significantly impacted by newly implemented U.S. tariffs affecting both our products and our services that we provide to our customers in the United States.
To illustrate the real economic impact of this situation, I would like to share a concrete example of a recent project. A 72-cavity injection mould, valued at $900,000 U.S. and used to produce plastic caps for beverage packaging, was shipped to a U.S. customer back in November 2025. As a result of tariffs imposed on August 15, 2025, an additional cost of $35,000 U.S. was added to the cost of the project. Notably, the contract for this project had been signed prior to the announcement of these tariffs, making this cost entirely unexpected and not accounted for in the original project pricing.
An identical 72-cavity mould was shipped to the same customer on April 14. Due to the implementation of new section 232 tariffs, effective April 6, this project had a significantly higher tariff of $135,000 U.S. This example illustrates a nearly fourfold increase in the tariff burden on the same product within a span of less than six months, highlighting the significant and unpredictable financial impact of recent trade policy changes on cross-border manufacturing projects.
StackTeck is another Canadian company, in Brampton, Ontario, and a member of the Canadian Association of Moldmakers. It is also a major supplier of injection moulds for the food and beverage industry, medical and personal care products and industrial containers. StackTeck ships approximately $42 million U.S. in moulds and automation to customers in the U.S. on an annual basis. StackTeck employs 281 employees in the greater Toronto area and purchases over $30 million U.S. of goods and services annually from local businesses in the GTA.
We have all seen a negative impact on our business volumes as a result of the section 232 steel tariffs imposed last year. A typical project can range from $500,000 U.S. to $2.5 million U.S. A 15% tariff is far beyond the contingency funds our customers can typically absorb. With the new tariff of 15% set to increase to 25% in 2028, we will be extremely challenged to remain competitive over our European and Asian competitors. If these higher-level tariffs are not reduced, we believe this will significantly reduce our order volume and ultimately result in our having to move a significant portion of our operations to the United States.
Our supply chains—