California Getting First New Steel Mill In 50 Years

industry week

Us Trading Partners Hit Back On Blanket Steel, Aluminum TariffsMajor U.S. trading partners announced countermeasures Wednesday to President Donald Trump's blanket steel and aluminum tariffs hours after the levies took effect in a salvo that fueled trade tensions globally. The steep 25% levies came into place after midnight with no exemptions despite countries' efforts to avert them, in an escalation of Trump's fresh duties already imposed on Canada, Mexico and China since he returned to the White House. The European Commission swiftly unveiled retaliation starting in April, while Canada announced additional tariffs on U.S. goods and China vowed "all necessary measures" in response -- as Washington edged toward an all-out trade war with allies and competitors alike. The European Commission will implement a series of countermeasures from April 1 in response to Washington's "unjustified trade restrictions," with chief Ursula von der Leyen saying the retaliation was "strong but proportionate." Canada, which is heavily exposed to the U.S. steel and aluminum levies, announced additional tariffs of $20.7 billion on U.S. goods, with the levies coming into force Thursday. These will hit products that include computers and sports equipment, said Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc. His country supplied about half of U.S. aluminum imports and 20% of its steel imports, according to a recent note by EY Chief Economist Gregory Daco. Besides Canada, Brazil and Mexico are also key U.S. suppliers of steel, while the United Arab Emirates and South Korea are among the major providers of aluminum. Wednesday's levies stack atop earlier ones, meaning some Canadian and Mexico steel and aluminum products could face higher tariff rates unless they comply with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), making them eligible for a temporary reprieve. 'Enough War' U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer criticized the EU's promises of retaliation, calling the bloc's economic policies "out of step with reality" while blaming it for failing to help address global excess capacity. "The EU's punitive action completely disregards the national security imperatives of the United States –- and indeed international security," Greer said in a statement. This came shortly after European Council Chief Antonio Costa called on Washington to de-escalate the situation and enter dialogue. "I think we have enough war in the world, we need to stop the wars we have and not create a trade war," Costa said. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, head of Europe's largest and heavily export-oriented economy, condemned Washington's moves as "wrong" and warned consumers could be hurt by increased inflation. Beijing's foreign ministry said "there are no winners in trade wars." China is the world's leading steel manufacturer, although not a major exporter of the product to the United States. Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs will likely balloon costs of producing goods from home appliances to automobiles and cans used for drinks, threatening to raise consumer prices down the road, experts say. Auto manufacturing and construction are among the biggest users of steel in the country, noted Cato Institute Research Fellow Clark Packard. 'Massive Uncertainty' Uncertainty over Trump's trade plans and worries that they could tip the world's biggest economy into a recession have roiled financial markets. Major Wall Street indexes tumbled for two days before regaining some ground on Wednesday on cooler consumer inflation data. Markets in Asia, including Hong Kong and Shanghai, were down on Wednesday. Even before the latest U.S. tariffs took effect, manufacturers moved to find cost-effective domestic suppliers. The mere threat of protectionism, said the Cato Institute's Packard, has allowed U.S. steel and aluminum firms to raise their prices. "It's creating massive amounts of uncertainty," he added. Looking ahead, Trump has also promised fresh "reciprocal tariffs" from April 2 to tackle what Washington considers unfair behavior. Washington has framed the tariff moves as a bid to protect U.S. steel and workers as the sector declines and faces fierce overseas competition, especially from Asia. It is not the first time Trump has slapped tariffs on the metals, having targeted both in his first presidency. The lack of exemptions Wednesday came despite U.S. partners, including Australia and Japan, pushing for exclusions. Tokyo expressed regret it had not succeeded while Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the tariffs unjustified. But both Canberra and London stopped short of retaliation. All rights reserved ©2025 Agence France-Presse Major U.S. trading partners announced countermeasures Wednesday to President Donald Trump's blanket steel and aluminum tariffs hours after the levies took effect in a salvo that fueled trade tensions globally. The steep 25% levies came into place after midnight with no exemptions despite countries' efforts to avert them, in an escalation of Trump's fresh duties already imposed on Canada, Mexico and China since he returned to the White House. The European Commission swiftly unveiled retaliation starting in April, while Canada announced additional tariffs on U.S. goods and China vowed "all necessary measures" in response -- as Washington edged toward an all-out trade war with allies and competitors alike. The European Commission will implement a series of countermeasures from April 1 in response to Washington's "unjustified trade restrictions," with chief Ursula von der Leyen saying the retaliation was "strong but proportionate." Canada, which is heavily exposed to the U.S. steel and aluminum levies, announced additional tariffs of $20.7 billion on U.S. goods, with the levies coming into force Thursday. These will hit products that include computers and sports equipment, said Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc. His country supplied about half of U.S. aluminum imports and 20% of its steel imports, according to a recent note by EY Chief Economist Gregory Daco. Besides Canada, Brazil and Mexico are also key U.S. suppliers of steel, while the United Arab Emirates and South Korea are among the major providers of aluminum. Wednesday's levies stack atop earlier ones, meaning some Canadian and Mexico steel and aluminum products could face higher tariff rates unless they comply with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), making them eligible for a temporary reprieve. U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer criticized the EU's promises of retaliation, calling the bloc's economic policies "out of step with reality" while blaming it for failing to help address global excess capacity. "The EU's punitive action completely disregards the national security imperatives of the United States –- and indeed international security," Greer said in a statement. This came shortly after European Council Chief Antonio Costa called on Washington to de-escalate the situation and enter dialogue. "I think we have enough war in the world, we need to stop the wars we have and not create a trade war," Costa said. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, head of Europe's largest and heavily export-oriented economy, condemned Washington's moves as "wrong" and warned consumers could be hurt by increased inflation. Beijing's foreign ministry said "there are no winners in trade wars." China is the world's leading steel manufacturer, although not a major exporter of the product to the United States. Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs will likely balloon costs of producing goods from home appliances to automobiles and cans used for drinks, threatening to raise consumer prices down the road, experts say. Auto manufacturing and construction are among the biggest users of steel in the country, noted Cato Institute Research Fellow Clark Packard. Uncertainty over Trump's trade plans and worries that they could tip the world's biggest economy into a recession have roiled financial markets. Major Wall Street indexes tumbled for two days before regaining some ground on Wednesday on cooler consumer inflation data. Markets in Asia, including Hong Kong and Shanghai, were down on Wednesday. Even before the latest U.S. tariffs took effect, manufacturers moved to find cost-effective domestic suppliers. The mere threat of protectionism, said the Cato Institute's Packard, has allowed U.S. steel and aluminum firms to raise their prices. "It's creating massive amounts of uncertainty," he added. Looking ahead, Trump has also promised fresh "reciprocal tariffs" from April 2 to tackle what Washington considers unfair behavior. Washington has framed the tariff moves as a bid to protect U.S. steel and workers as the sector declines and faces fierce overseas competition, especially from Asia. It is not the first time Trump has slapped tariffs on the metals, having targeted both in his first presidency. The lack of exemptions Wednesday came despite U.S. partners, including Australia and Japan, pushing for exclusions. Tokyo expressed regret it had not succeeded while Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the tariffs unjustified. But both Canberra and London stopped short of retaliation. All rights reserved ©2025 Agence France-Presse

factory

12 March 2025

manufacturing net

U.S. Factories Likely To Feel The Pain From Trump'S Steel And Aluminum TariffsWASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is once again lashing out at three of his biggest irritants: foreign steel, foreign aluminum and Canada. Trump on Wednesday will effectively plaster 25% taxes – tariffs – on all steel and aluminum imports. And on Tuesday the president said the U.S. would double the forthcoming levy on the two metals to 50% if they come from Canada — only for the White House to pull back its threat by the afternoon after the province of Ontario suspended its own retaliatory plans. The pain won’t just be felt by foreign steel and aluminum plants. The tariffs will likely drive up costs for American companies that use the metals, such as automakers, construction firms and beverage makers that use cans. The threats to the economy have rattled stock markets. “Unilateral tariffs will raise prices, cost American jobs, and strain alliances,” Philip Luck and Evan Brown of the Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote in a report last month. The latest tariffs are an amped-up replay from Trump’s first term. In 2018, in an effort to protect American steelmakers from foreign competition, he imposed tariffs of 25% on foreign steel and 10% on aluminum, using a 1962 trade law to declare them a threat to U.S. national security. The tariffs landed most heavily on American allies: Canada is the No. 1 supplier of foreign steel and accounts for more than half of aluminum exports to the United States. Mexico, Japan and South Korea are also major steel exporters to the U.S. The president insists that steel imports are a threat to the very existence of the United States. “If we don’t have, as an example, steel, and lots of other things, we don’t have a military and frankly we won’t have — we just won’t have a country very long,” Trump said last week in his joint address to Congress. His 2018 sanctions were gradually watered down. Trump spared Canada and Mexico after they agreed to his demand for a revamped North American trade deal in 2020. For some U.S. trading partners, the tariffs were supplanted by import quotas. And the first Trump administration also allowed American companies to request exemptions from the tariffs if, for instance, they couldn’t find the steel they needed from domestic U.S. producers. This time, Trump is closing those loopholes and raising the levy on aluminum to 25%. He’s shown a willingness to go higher — as the apparently short-lived 50% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum suggest. Trump was originally punching back at the government of Ontario for imposing a 25% surcharge on electricity sold to the United States, a move that was itself a response to Trump's tariff threats. After Trump said he'd hit the Canadians with a 50% metals tax, Ontario suspended its planned electricity surcharge. In response, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said the U.S. would pull back on doubling the tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. Trump’s first-term steel and aluminum tariffs benefited American producers of the two metals, encouraging them to increase production. But the beneficiaries were relatively few: The U.S. steel industry, for instance, employs fewer than 150,000 people. Walmart alone has 1.6 million employees in the United States. Moreover, economists have found, the gains to the steel and aluminum industries were more than offset by the cost they imposed on “downstream’’ manufacturers that use steel and aluminum. In 2021, production at such companies dropped by nearly $3.5 billion because of the tariffs, canceling out the $2.3 billion uptick in production that year by aluminum producers and steelmakers, the U.S. International Trade Commission found in 2023. This time, “there is no particular reason to think that the economics won’t be more of the same: small gains for the U.S. steel and aluminum producers and employees, but larger overall losses for the rest of U..S manufacturing,’’ said Christine McDaniel, research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center. Taken by themselves, the metals tariffs are unlikely to do much damage to the nearly $30 trillion U.S. economy. “Steel and aluminum – they’re just a drop in the ocean,’’ said Satyam Panday, chief U.S. and Canada economist at S&P Global Ratings. But Trump isn’t just hitting steel and aluminum. He’s slapped 20% tariffs on all Chinese imports. He’s set to hammer all Canadian and Mexican products with 25% taxes next month, while limiting the tariff on Canadian energy to 10% – moves he has twice postponed with 30-day reprieves. And he has an ambitious and complicated plan to impose “reciprocal tariffs,’’ raising U.S. import taxes to match those of countries that impose higher levies on American products. The scope and unpredictability of Trump’s tariff agenda threatens to rekindle inflation and to slow growth by discouraging companies from making investments until the trade tensions have eased. “If you’re an executive in the board room, are you really going to tell your board it’s the time to expand that assembly line?” said John Murphy, senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. U.S. steelmakers can step up production to offset lost imports. They can also raise prices – and have already started, putting U.S. companies that use American steel at a disadvantage to competitors who get theirs elsewhere. U.S. steel was priced at $854 per metric ton as of Feb. 24, considerably higher than the average world export price of $488, according to Steel Benchmarker. Aluminum is a different story. The United States has just four aluminum smelters and only two of them were fully operating last year. Increasing U.S. smelter production would require “enough power for a small city,” S&P Global said in a report last week. Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs are also certain to draw retaliatory taxes. Canada’s are expected to be announced Wednesday. Critics say Trump’s metals tariffs are hitting the wrong target. China is widely seen as a source of the world steel industry’s problems. Chinese overproduction, heavily subsidized by Beijing, has flooded the world with steel and kept prices low, hurting steelmakers in the United States and elsewhere. But the U.S. already uses trade barriers to keep out most Chinese steel. China accounted for less than 2% of U.S. steel imports last year, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. “Instead of focusing on the real issue — China’s market-distorting policies — the United States risks entangling itself in tariff disputes with its closest allies,’’ wrote Luck and Brown at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Meanwhile, companies that use steel are already feeling the pain. Steelport Knife Co. in Portland, Oregon, uses U.S. steel in its knives for home cooks and professional chefs. Last month, its American steel supplier, anticipating Trump’s tariffs, raised its price by 10%. CEO Ron Khormaei says Steelport’s Japanese and German competitors are benefiting. “It’s cheaper for them,’’ he said. Khormaei says his small company — it has 12 employees — will lose business if it raises prices. So he’s doing everything he can to cut costs — keeping inventories tight, for example, and limiting travel to trade shows. And he’s facing another problem. “Canadians are mad at us,’’ he said. Khormaei said that one of his Canadian customers just cancelled an order by email: “Thank you. We love your product. We are not buying.’’

factory

12 March 2025

California Getting First New Steel Mill In 50 Years

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