Mr. Chair, members of the committee, clerk, fellow witnesses, thank you for the opportunity to appear today and to contribute to the committee's work on this important issue. My name is Robert Dimitrieff, and I am the president of Patriot Forge, the largest open die steel-forging producer in Canada. We are a Canadian success story, starting from simple roots and now employing over 250 Canadians in our facilities in Brantford and Paris, Ontario.
I'd like to start by emphasizing that these tariffs will have a very significant negative impact on our company. If we are unable to secure relief from the Government of Canada, our business will be forced to close within a few months of July 1. We simply will not be able to afford to continue operating.
Since 1976 we have specialized in producing high-grade specialty steel and metal alloy components that are sold on the global market. We are an essential supplier for power generation, oil and gas, nuclear power, infrastructure, aerospace, and in particular military. Since my father founded our company 40 years ago, we have experienced continued growth. The business has expanded rapidly, even with the downturn in oil and gas. To meet this growing demand, in 2015 we invested $65 million in our Brantford facility, $10 million of which was structured as a loan under the FedDev Ontario economic development program. We were very grateful for the federal government's support and for its recognition of Patriot Forge as both an innovative, market-leading manufacturer and an important economic engine for southwestern Ontario.
Sadly, today we are facing the most serious threats to our business operations from both sides of the Canadian border. Unfortunately for Patriot Forge, the U.S. tariffs on imported steel products are already making it difficult for our operations to continue. We currently ship 90% of our products to the United States. This includes contracts for specialized parts that are sold to the U.S. military through the Canadian Commercial Corporation. In the next two weeks, we expect to ship over $1 million worth of product to the United States that will be subject to a 25% tariff. Since the U.S. tariffs have come into effect, we have been paying the difference for our U.S. customers to avoid losing them to our American competition. Obviously, this is not a sustainable solution. Some U.S. customers are already beginning to question whether they should be sourcing from the United States instead.
In Canada the proposed retaliation to the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs will only add increased stress on Patriot Forge's operations and financial exposure. Due to the high grade of manufacturing standards expected by our customers, the quality steel alloy required for our production must be sourced from specialty steelmakers in the United States. At the moment, there is only one Canadian specialty steel producer, and it does not have the production capacity and technical capability required to meet our demands. We are therefore forced to source our raw material from the United States. A Canadian tariff of 25% on raw steel and metal alloy imported from the U.S. will make Patriot simply unable to compete with our U.S. competitors.
To give you a sense of the financial impact, our latest forecast, which we did this past week, expects that without tariff relief from the Canadian government, our company will have an average tariff expense of $682,000 Canadian per month starting July 1, specifically on imported raw materials from the U.S. to Canada. We cannot afford these costs. They will have a disastrous impact on our financial situation and on our viability as a company and a local employer.
In the face of these serious obstacles, we are looking at every option to reduce expenses and reposition our products for export to other markets beyond the United States. However, this will take time. We can change our tack, but not without difficulty and not without the Canadian government's help. We are asking Finance Canada for tariff relief so that the immediate threat to our business is removed and we can try to shift our business to manage the new trading reality. With a July 1 implementation date, we cannot manage without some government assistance to mitigate the serious impact of the Canadian countermeasures.
I cannot emphasize this enough. Without relief from the Canadian countermeasures, we will not be able to adapt our operation and we will be put out of business. Right now 250 Canadians work at Patriot Forge in Ontario. None of us want to be the first economic casualties of a trade war.
I thank you for this opportunity and respectfully call upon members of this committee, as well as all members of the federal government, to please help us find a solution to the serious problem we find ourselves in.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd be pleased to take your questions now.