MONTREAL — Tariffs on Canadian aluminium have dramatically increased the price of an Apple-supported technology that is key to the company’s supply chain, complicating its work to reduce its carbon footprint.

Aluminum sourced from Montreal-based Elysis, which produces a low-carbon version of the metal, is used in the production of Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro. Though the technology is in its infancy, Apple expects Elysis-produced aluminum to play an integral part in its plan to be carbon neutral by 2030, according to the company’s 2024 environmental progress report.

Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The innovative aluminium produced by Elysis is the product of an Apple-brokered joint venture between competitors Alcoa and Rio Tinto. Elysis is billed as the world’s first carbon-free smelting technology. Like all Canadian-sourced aluminum, Elysis has been the subject of the Trump administration’s 25 per cent tariffs since March 4.

Apple invested $10 million in Elysis in 2018, part of a combined US$188-million investment from Alcoa, Rio Tinto, and the Quebec and Canadian governments. The company first used the low-carbon aluminium in its now-discontinued iPhone SE. Unlike traditionally produced aluminum, which emits greenhouse gases, Elysis’s only by-product is oxygen, and has the potential to reduce carbon by seven million tonnes a year in Canada alone, according to Rio Tinto.

Nine of Canada’s 10 aluminum smelters, as well as the country’s lone aluminum refinery, are located in Quebec. Canada produced over three million tonnes of aluminum in 2023, making it the world’s fourth-largest producer after China, India and Russia. Over 90 per cent of Canada’s aluminum is exported to the U.S.

Though the tariffs have strained Canada’s aluminum producers, the sector is better placed to withstand the tariffs than the steel industry because the U.S. doesn’t have domestic aluminum production capacity.

Quebec’s aluminum sector, which flourished during the mid-20th century thanks to abundant hydroelectricity, is the single largest consumer of electricity in the province, underscoring the vast amounts of energy required to produce the metal. 

The province’s commercial electricity rates, which are the lowest in Canada and the U.S., are less than a third of those in New York state, home to the world’s oldest continuously operating aluminum smelter. Unlike steel production, which increased in the U.S. following the first Trump administration’s tariffs in 2018, domestic aluminum production in the U.S. has steadily decreased since 2001.

Energy costs remain a major hindrance to the development of the U.S. aluminum industry. The country’s four aluminum smelters produced just over 710,000 tonnes in 2023. And like Canada, the U.S. must also import bauxite ore, the raw material behind aluminum, from countries such as Australia and China, further complicating any plans for domestic production.

“Tomorrow morning, the Americans are going to continue to consume aluminum in many sectors, including defence, but they don’t have the capacity to support their own industry,” Dominic Lemieux, director of the Métallos union in Quebec, told The Logic. Yet Lemieux said the tariffs will adversely affect Canada’s aluminum transformation sector, including the process of making car parts, as they will likely force U.S. companies to develop domestic alternatives. 

The impact of Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada on Apple’s business dealings in Quebec underscore how intertwined U.S. companies are with Canada’s aluminium industry. Canadian aluminum is used in the U.S. production of everything from beer cans to warheads.