When Tariffs Bite, Laser Cleaning Protects Your Bottom Line

The Tariff Pressure: What’s Changing in 2025 (and How Laser Cleaning Can Help)

As of March 12, 2025, the U.S. reinstated a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports, including many derivative products from Canada. (Read more here) Later, on June 4, 2025, U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs increased to 50% on many products. (read more here).

Canada has responded with $29.8 billion in counter-tariffs on U.S. goods, including steel and aluminum products, aiming to protect domestic industries. (Read more here) These changes have already squeezed profit margins, especially for businesses that rely on imported steel/aluminum or use components made from them. Some industries are seeing loss of sales, layoffs, or needing to source more expensive local materials. (Read more here)

New Tariffs Mean Businesses Can’t Overlook Surface Maintenance

Given the increased cost of metal inputs, maintaining and preserving what you already have is more important than ever. Every bit of material loss, repainting, or component replacement costs more — and those costs compound quickly under tariff pressure.

Laser cleaning helps here in several ways:

Reduce Material Waste Traditional cleaning (sandblasting, grinding) can remove more material than necessary, cause pitting, or damage protective coatings. Laser cleaning removes only what needs to go, preserving base metals and coatings and thereby delaying the need for costly replacements.

Cut Back Secondary Costs When you use abrasive or chemical methods, there are often additional costs: media disposal, containment, safety gear, environmental compliance, surface damage repair, and extra coating or repainting. Laser cleaning minimizes many of those again — less mess, fewer regulatory hurdles, less re-coating.

Extend Lifespan of Components Under tariff pressure, replacing parts is expensive. Keeping parts in good condition via precision cleaning extends their useful life. This means assets last longer, which amortizes their cost over more time and reduces the frequency of expensive overhauls.

Improve Efficiency and Downtime With material costs up, you can’t afford downtime. Laser cleaning is faster in many cases—less setup, no need for transporting equipment off-site, fewer safety hazards—and thus helps you maintain productivity while preserving quality.

Real World Example

• A shop in Hamilton imports aluminum components for local contracts. Their supplier costs increase 25–40% due to tariffs + shipping + supply constraints.

• Normally, rust or oxidation on these components meant abrasive blasting, followed by repaint and sometimes even replacement of thin sections. These steps add up in material cost and labor, especially if surfaces are damaged.
  

• If instead, they adopt laser cleaning for corrosion/oxidation removal:

  • They preserve base metal thickness and finish, avoiding having to sand down or replace thin aluminum sheets.

  • They require fewer consumables, less re-finishing, and less labor.

  • Their speed of repair means contracts are less likely to go into penalty for delay.

Even a small percentage saved per part adds up over dozens or hundreds of parts in a year, especially with margins being tight because of tariffs.

What to Evaluate When Choosing a Surface Treatment

If your business is considering laser cleaning over traditional methods, here are key criteria:

• Surface sensitivity: Aluminum, stainless steel, thin metals are more at risk of damage from blasting or chemicals.

• Speed & logistics: Is the cost of transporting or shutting down more than the cleaning method itself?

• Regulatory & environmental compliance: Local rules are tightening on chemical runoff, media disposal, and emissions. Non-chemical, low-waste methods are favored.

• Lifecycle cost vs. upfront cost: In rare cases, laser services may have higher upfront cost, but lower total cost over time from fewer repairs, replacements, coatings.

With steel and aluminum tariffs pushing up expenses for materials across manufacturing, construction, marine, and fabrication sectors, optimizing every aspect of your workflow is essential. Surface cleaning isn’t just about appearance; it’s about protecting material investment and maximizing the lifespan of what you already own.

If you’d like to understand what laser cleaning could save you in material waste, labor, or replacement costs, we’d be glad to run through some scenarios together.

Contact us at Rydex Laser to evaluate your parts or project and see the numbers for your business.