OT: Does rise of Candian dollar effect you?

[metal-doctor]

Just curious if the rise in the Canackbuck has any effect on your business or line of manufacturing. It does not restrict us as all work is local manufacturing or repair work. It actually may help us because we can travel on the U.S. side again for a holiday without feeling we are getting hosed.

[Black Wolf]

I don't know what to think

I was always taught in school that having a dollar that was valued less than the American dollar helped us because we could manufacture products that were cheaper to buy (in American Dollars) than they could build stateside, so it made economic sense for the U.S. to have stuff built here. Kind of like "Made in China" Everyone looks at cost cutting. We've covered this on many threads regarding "Foreign workers in Alberta" to flaming anything sold by Harbor Freight. Big business wants the most bang for the buck. If we (Canada) are not a cost cutting alternative in the long run for manufacturing, I suspect they will look elsewhere. Don't get me wrong, I'm ALL FOR our currency to be equal penny for penny. I just do not know what impact it will have on the total economy. Besides, before I jump up and down - we are still going to get whacked with "Duty" at the border for bringing stuff North.

It would be nice once in my lifetime to not have to convert our currency to theirs. A dollar, should be a dollar on both sides of the border and have the same value.

Just my $.02 CDN or $.0195 US

Later,

[MAC702]

It's surely part of a grand global conspiracy against the US.

Nuke Ottawa before this gets out of hand.

[Scott T]

It's surely part of a grand global conspiracy against the US.

Nuke Ottawa before this gets out of hand.

That's funny Mac as some people think everything and everyone revolves around the U.S. and everyone are out to get them.

We have more work coming from the U.S. than ever, I guess quality still trumps cost

[cunninglinguist]

I'm Canadian but not in manufacturing so it hasn't hurt me financially other than going on buying sprees on Ebay.com

[Black Wolf]

Mac old buddy,

Could you guys flange up something down there to turn Ottawa into a crater??? You'd be saving us (Canada) a lot of money wasted on politician's salaries.

Later,

On edit: Before this gets out of hand, I was joking. No hate mail necessary.

[cruizer]

Love the dollar value, just saved 9K on a new bike out of the states. Been buying lots of stuff recently.

[Scott T]

Love the dollar value, just saved 9K on a new bike out of the states. Been buying lots of stuff recently.

If you saved 9 grand you are not buying the average bike, so how about some insight to the new bike.

[metal-doctor]

That must be a Harley your buying for that kind of savings. What I am curious about is how it will affect our welder prices, might be time for more toys.

[cruizer]

Bought a honda rune, cost's me 17k landed in Canada, Last year I bought a American Ironhorse Texas chopper, made 15K on the bike. Nobody wants the hassle of importing I guess.

[metal-doctor]

Hey cruiser , let's have some pics of the new wheels

[Rvannatta]

So far, its sort-of been evening out for me. I lost about a $7k tank job because of rise of Can dollar and rise of steel prices, but I can buy stuff from the U.S.of A. for cheaper now. It is hurting the local economy a bit at the moment though, lumber mills up here are losing crossborder business and as such a few have shut down already, and unfortunately lumber is pretty well king in this province.

The rise of the Loonie against the yankee dollar has been amazing. You are correct about the lumber business. There have been trade squabbles over Canadian lumber for as long as the US has existed. A few years back
the imported lumber from the north was at around 40% of US sales and
gaining rapidly. threatening the survival of the US lumber and timber business.

Now with the Loonie up, one only needs to look at the curtailment list to see
what is going on. One list I follow has over a dozen Canadian mills curtailed for May or part there of compared to a couple US mills.

the US housing market is in a heap of hurt with demand shrinking 20% or so.
Locally we've lost one mill permanently that we've sold logs to for 40 years, and another has been up and down, but it still looks like the US side of the border is doing better than the Canadian side.....