Import steel to Canada?

[MikeHalloran]

We make overhead cranes, which are mostly sold in Florida. Perhaps thanks to our website, we sold some crane parts to a guy in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Now he needs a crane beam, and says he can't find one locally.

So he asked us to sell him one. We'd prefer to source the beam somewhere near him, but would ship it from our own sources if necessary. [ The required beam is either S24x80 x 40', A36, or W18x119 x 40', HSLA 50. ] So far mfgquote.com has not produced results, and random faxing to steel suppliers within a thousand miles of our customer has produced little response, but getting the beam is not my primary problem; getting it to the customer is.

I've been reading the Canada Customs regulations, and to the extent I can make sense of them, there appears to be no duty on cranes, crane parts, or rolled sections. But the sheer size of the documents I've found makes me suspect that considerable paperwork may be involved in just getting the damn thing across the border.

Surely someone here has imported steel to Canada. How big a hassle is involved?



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[CTW]

Since it's just a beam, could this person not talk to a local contractor to find out steel fabricators in the area? How about a phonebook? That's a long way to ship one 40 ft long beam. The shipping cost would probably be more than the beam cost.

 

[JStephen]

Even if you can't find a supplier in Canada, if you talk to a supplier up near the border, they should have a lot better idea of what's involved in importing stuff.

 

[MikeHalloran]

The particular sections in question are not at all common. I found one in the South, 2600 miles away, and one in Toronto, 1700 miles away. Yeah, the shipping cost would be large relative to the part cost.

The boss proposed a third section, which our customer was able to find locally, so the need has evaporated. Thanks for the responses.

Oh. Along the way I learned that paperwork is not a big problem, but you do have to arrange for a third party 'agent' to meet your shipment at Customs ... and I guess point to it and say "that's a ..." whatever you're shipping. Maybe I took up the wrong trade...



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA