Business View Magazine - October 2018

302 303 CATALINA CYLINDERS of our businesses,” explains Silva. “We do source material domestically, but the majority of our ma- terial comes from out of the country; a large por- tion comes from Canada.We do have some supply in the States and our U.S. suppliers are working to expand their portfolios to help us source more domestically, but there are some products that we probably will never be able to source economically fromwithin the U.S. So, a lot of the cost impact that we see,we can’t fully pass on to our customers, and we’re forced, as an industry, to absorb a large portion of those tariffs.” “The reality is, the tariffs and the political situa- tion are not helping our business, not helping our industry, and it requires us to do everything we can to streamline our business, keep our costs lean, and even change focus on some of the markets that we pursue,”Silva continues.“The trade barriers that are being put in place are counterproductive.We export a lot of our product overseas and we’re seeing the situation becoming more and more tense; more trade barriers popping up; more costs to doing busi- ness. And it’s very difficult for us to export product into countries that are putting up more and more trade barriers. It’s definitely having a negative im- pact on our business and our industry; it’s making us relatively less competitive as a business, as an industry, and as a country.” PREFERRED VENDOR n Cavagna North America www.cavagnana.com For 70 years, the Cavagna Group has been a global lead- er providing advanced, integrated solutions for the con- trol, regulation and storage of compressed gas. Today, the Cavagna Group is made up of eleven vertically integrated production companies in Italy and seven other companies spread out across five continents. The Group now sells its products in more than 145 countries worldwide.