Easy Signs director Andy Fryer has weighed in on US president Donald Trump’s decision to impose a 25 per cent tariff on steel and aluminium imports entering the US from 12 March, stating the proposed move will simply force the company and its competitors to slightly increase prices to adjust and maintain margins.

However, Australia is hoping to secure exemptions to the new taxes.

“While we are still awaiting further clarification on the amount of aluminium a product must contain to be included in the tariffs, we are working on the assumption that all of our imported aluminium products will be included,” Fryer told Sprinter.

“If this is the case it will simply force us and all our competitors to slightly increase prices to adjust and maintain margins. The hardware components we import are not manufactured locally in the USA, so we have limited options.”

Easy Signs first opened its US operations with a $US2.8 million investment for a 6700sqm in March 2022.

Easy Signs was recently featured on the front page of the New York Times commenting on the tariffs up to 400 per cent placed on aluminium components from China.

“We had been running into huge challenges with tariffs being applied on imported aluminium products such as pull-up banner stands, media wall frames and gazebos adding up to 370 per cent of the value of the aluminium. This forced us to redirect containers that had arrived to the US from China, all the way to Australia,” Fryer said previously.

In September, Fryer also mentioned that after doubling sales from 2022 to 2023, Easy Signs has experienced a further 50 per cent increase in sales as it grows to more than 50 staff members from its operations in Pennsylvania.

Fryer confirmed that in June 2023, sales were double those of 2022 and in June 2024, these numbers grew again by a further 50 per cent.

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