Expanding to US amidst trade tension, will Kam Pin Industrial face wits or woes?

Hong Kong-based aluminium company Kam Pin Industrial is expanding into the US market, urging overseas partners to remain their allies despite ongoing China-US trade tensions. Kam Pin Industrial is a rising leader in producing aluminium curtain walls for architectural exteriors. 

Image source: semi.org

The multinational business established a certain international reputation due to its Dongguan production base in a neighbouring Guangdong province. This had been possible for the company because of its top-notch quality aluminium curtain walls. Adding to this, domestically as well as internationally, the lightweight feature of aluminium makes it highly demanding in the cladding for buildings, allowing versatile designs. 

The firm's extra innovation with the colour and aluminium used as coatings for multiple uses gained them an international consumer base. The majority of the international clientele that the firm received was from the United States and Japan.  

Before February 2025, the Kam Pin faced immense challenges due to the imposition of all the tariffs by Trump, creating greater tension for the US trading partners, mainly China. Moreover, the tension rose with the tariff of 25 per cent on aluminium and steel and an additional 10 per cent baseline tariff on all goods imported from US trading partners. 

After all the tariffs currently imposed by the US, the firm will be facing a total of 75.7 per cent tariffs for its US-based products. This further includes two rounds of 10 per cent tariffs imposed on Chinese products. 

Irrespective of having high demand for the firm's products within the US territory, its profit margin had significantly fallen. However, regular consumers in the US territory recently placed orders of a total worth of HKD 2 million (USD 257,792). On this, the CEO says the company could have gained orders worth USD 5 million for the second half of 2025. But the firm had only been able to reach a tenth of that target so far. 

As per the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), aluminium products set to enter the US market would be highly subject to tariffs, reaching a doubled value of 5.3 million tonnes. An estimation says that USD 132 billion worth of aluminium derivative products like kitchen appliances, aircraft, mechanical machinery, construction materials and others would face a serious hit. 

As per the HKUST Li & Fung Supply Chain Institute, there are multiple ways for firms based out of Hong Kong to deal with the tariffs. Some of these included: 

• Exporters can split the bills for the US importers in other payment forms, such as service fees, commissions, or simply shrinking the amount charged. 
• Switching shipments of finished goods exported to the US from the factories within the countries which are subjected to lower tariffs. 
• Exporting products from China to Canada rather than directly exporting them to the US.

“We spent a few years breaking into the US market, which was very difficult in the early stage. So I guess it will take some time to break new ground in these countries,” said Danny Lau Tat-pong, Managing Director of Kam Pin Industrial.

With such strategies to fight against the tariffs currently being imposed by Trump surfaced Kam Pin Industrial, with over a decade of operation in their domestic territory, declares the US to be a big market to lose. The firm leveraged the high demand and the willingness to pay more of the US importers for high-quality products, irrespective of cheaper options. This made the firm plan to develop a brand-new plant within the US territory. However, this is not a confirmed decision made as of now due to the ongoing unsettling tariff tension.