The new 50 per cent tariff on Canadian cement imports is expected to exert further upward pressure on construction costs in the United States. That adds to the mix of surcharges on softwood lumber, steel and aluminum that have already contributed to a 7.1 per cent year-over-year increase in non-residential input costs between the summers of 2025 and 2026.
“Tariffs are creating an unmanageable and unpredictable level of risk for contractors,” says Mike Elmendorf, president and chief executive officer the Associated General Contractors of America’s New York State chapter (AGC NYS). “They are driving up the cost of construction materials at a time when material costs are already high and we are in an inflationary environment.”
Prior to the Aug. 22 enactment of the tariff, cement was a rarity in the AGC’s producer price index — registering a 0.7 per cent decline in price in the 12 months since July 2025. However, that’s in the context of a 39.2 per cent price increase since the pre-COVID era of February 2020.
In March 2025, the American Cement Association (ACA) estimated that more than a third of the cement consumed in New York, Washington and various New England states could come from Canadian sources. Cement’s inclusion among the hundreds of Canadian products and commodities now subject to a 50 per cent tariff occurs after ACA representatives met with U.S. government officials in June to call for support for domestic production, and advance the case for cement to be recognized as a critical material for U.S. infrastructure and national security.
Republican influencers have also been making that argument. Congressional representative Ryan Mackenzie, a Republican from Pennsylvania, advocated for an executive order “to bolster the nation’s cement industry” in a March 2026 letter to the U.S. president.
Mike Bishop, a former Michigan congressional representative, likewise called for policies to mandate domestically produced cement in U.S. infrastructure, housing and defence supply chains in a mid-June opinion piece published in Bridge Michigan, a non-partisan online news site. Indonesia and Vietnam are specifically identified as countries he alleges are flooding global markets and “depressing prices and stifling investment in U.S. plants and quarries,” but he does not name Canada.
For its part, the Cement Association of Canada reiterated its support for integrated North American supply chains following last week’s postponement of the U.S. government’s initially proposed Aug. 19 start-date for tariffs. “Our priority is a trade environment that allows Canadian cement and concrete producers to remain competitive while supporting the timely and cost-effective delivery of the housing and infrastructure North America needs,” it stated.
The association has not commented since the tariff was invoked Aug. 22.
