Category: Market Segment

Automakers, construction, manufacturers raise concerns

Unions members on both sides of the US-Canada border are speaking out against President Trump’s tariffs on Canadian steel. They say the tariffs threaten to disrupt supply chains and subvert decades of economic cooperation. The United Steelworkers (USW) has more than 850,000 total members in North America, with 225,000 in Canada.

While American steelmakers welcome the revival of the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, other nations' steel industries are calling for retaliation against President Trump's unilateral action of upping the levies on trading allies and removing all product exemptions.

US steel prices set to jump after President Trump levies new tariffs.

AISI and SMA praise Trump tariffs.

The new version of Section 232 goes into effect on 12:01 am ET on March 12, according to the executive order. The latest iteration of Section 232 removed quotas, exemptions, and other carve outs that had accumulated over years.

Friedman swings to a loss in its fiscal third quarter of 2025.

President Donald Trump said he would announce 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imported to the US, according to Bloomberg. Trump said he would make an announcement about the matter on Monday. It was not clear when the tariffs might take effect.

Nippon Steel has agreed to “invest heavily in U.S. Steel as opposed to own it,” President Donald Trump said on Friday during a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. U.S. Steel is “a very important company” and was once “the greatest company in the world”. Of potential foreign ownership of the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker, Trump said, “the concept, psychologically, not good."

The day-to-day bustle of these announcements should not obscure what they signal for other potential tariff measures in the near term and a revamped trade and economic policy in the long term. 

The company’s plants had been shut since just before Christmas when the company locked out union workers during negotiations.

If 2021 and 2022 was the party, 2024 is the morning after, one panelist said.

"Personally, I find it very hard to believe that we would be in a trade war with Mexico and Canada for more than a few months at any given time. I don't know how Mexico and Canada could survive that. That's a recession for them. That's a few points off GDP for us - my opinion.”

Facing weak demand and an “unsustainably low” pricing environment, GrafTech International posted another quarterly loss to close out 2024.

AM/NS Calvert has begun commissioning its new electric-arc furnace, with plans to reach its full annual run rate of 1.65 million short tons a year from now.

There's a lot of production waiting to come online

U.S. Steel has idled its "B" Battery at its Clairton Coke Works near Pittsburgh following a “release of excess pressure” inside a section of the battery on Feb. 5.

ArcelorMittal announced on Thursday that it will begin the construction of its new $1.2-billion electrical steel mill in Alabama later this year. The steelmaker said it is proceeding with plans to build the new greenfield mill near its existing AM/NS joint venture in Calvert, Ala. The ArcelorMittal Calvert plant will have an annealing pickling line, […]

Domestic steel shipments increased month over month and year on year in December, according to the latest data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). US steel mills shipped 7,145,016 short tons (st) in December, up 0.9% from 7,082,921 st in December 2023 and 6.6% higher than 6,702,557 st in November 2024. For the full-year […]

The union says the suit is "a frivolous and unsubstantiated attack on our union simply for exercising our First Amendment rights."

The Commerce Department on Tuesday issued preliminary subsidy rates in the corrosion-resistant steel (CORE) trade case. The agency set minimal countervailing duty (CVD) rates for Brazil and Mexico, mostly high rates for Vietnam, and low rates for Canada, except for one privately held distributor. Commerce assigned that company, Nova Steel, and a handful of Vietnamese […]

The Vienna-based global refractory product provider said this is its most significant investment since RHI and Magnesita merged in 2017

Steel and aluminum have been identified as high priorities for trade

The volume of raw steel produced by US mills slightly increased last week, according to American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) data. Last week’s production rate represents the second-highest level recorded this year.

Together, Nippon Steel, Nippon Steel North America, and U.S. Steel announced the filing of their opening brief in their litigation to invalidate the government’s decision to block their announced merger. The brief lays out “how President Biden made a predetermined decision for political reasons, not national security, causing CFIUS to engage in a sham review […]

Canada fights back, a little As this article was about to be posted, Canada had not backed down to US President Trump’s 25% tariffs coming for Canadian goods at the stroke of midnight. In fact, the Government of Canada had pushed back, saying it would implement 25% tariffs on $155 billion worth of US products […]

“It is not by imposing tariffs that problems are resolved, but by talking and dialoguing,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said.

Muted demand from the auto industry took a particular toll later in the year.

The benefits from higher tariffs are speculative and unproven. The disruptions caused by tariffs and other trade restrictions are better documented and cannot be rationally denied. For the tariffs to be good policy, the Trump argument must therefore be sure that the benefits to the US exceed the cost of these disruptions. Otherwise, we have madness masquerading as policy.

The Trump administration will implement 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and 10% tariffs on China, according to a White House fact sheet and executive orders circulated on Saturday. The administration said that it would tariff “energy resources” from Canada at a lower rate – 10%. The tariffs will go into effect at 12:01 ET on Tuesday, according to an executive order. The White House documents made no mention of exemptions.