Leading U.S. CEOs addressed a letter to President Trump urging him to remain firm on 25 percent steel tariffs. It said revitalizing the American steel industry is not just an economic imperative but a matter of national security.

In early February, newly re-elected President Donald Trump made headlines with his announced plans to enact 25 percent tariffs on our nearest neighbors, Mexico and Canada. The purpose of these were not necessarily about unfair trade practices.

For the better part of 12 months, the announced deal for Japan’s Nippon Steel to acquire U.S. Steel languished in limbo, the occasional step forward offset by a development that set it back another few months.

The past year was a rough one for the flat steel supply chain. Will declining interest rates lead to better things in 2025? (Photo courtesy Grand Steel)

Eleven months from now, I won’t be surprised if Webster’s announces the word of the year is not some Gen-Z-crafted linguistic atrocity that most of us will have never heard of, let alone understand. Rather, it will be the centuries-old favorite, “tariff.”

Zekelman Industries has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the Republic of Mexico for violating trade agreements and dumping steel on the U.S. market. The lawsuit alleges that Mexico’s conduct threatens the national security of the United States by damaging domestic steel producers.

The aluminum market has been relatively stable over the last few years. But what does the future hold for nonferrous metals? (Photo by SAF)

For the past six years, the domestic steel industry has been the beneficiary of some favorable actions from the Beltway.

Section 232 tariffs will be applied to steel imported into the United States from Mexico if those products were not melted in poured in Mexico, the Biden administration announced. The AISI applauded the decision.

It’s easy to look at the polarization inherent to the United States’ political system as all-encompassing, where one side of the aisle stakes out a position and the party from the opposite side immediately and enthusiastically embraces the other.

It isn’t often the head of a U.S. trade group lauds the implementation of tariffs by another country. But that’s just what Charles Johnson of the Aluminum Association did last week.

The Department of Commerce has issued final Antidumping and Countervailing duty determinations on tin mill products from several U.S. trading partners. Duty rates ranged from 0 percent to 122 percent.

The Aluminum Association, Instituto Mexicano del Aluminio and the Aluminium Association of Canada called for continued tariff-free trade, increased import monitoring and stronger trade enforcement in a letter to trade officials in Canada, Mexico and the United States. The letter came ahead of a summit in Mexico City highlighting the past and future of the North American aluminum trading relationship.

By holding inventory, master distributors serve vital, and unique, role in the metals supply chain. (Photo by Dover Tubular Alloys)

Inventories have been worked off throughout the aluminum space. Will demand force distributors to restock?

President Joe Biden welcomed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel for a trade discussion that focused heavily on steel.

Metalforming companies continue to grow more pessimistic about business conditions over the coming months, according to the October 2023 Precision Metalforming Association Business Conditions Report. Prepared monthly, PMA’s report provides an economic indicator for the next three months of manufacturing, sampling 110 metalforming companies in the United States and Canada.

The Aluminum Extruders Council is asking the Department of Commerce to reconsider its tariff exclusion rules on extruded products. The trade group said that while the Section 232 tariffs have been effective at protecting primary aluminum producers, numerous carve-out exclusions have harmed the extrusion industry.