In this Sept. 23, 2024, file photo, Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, speaks during a campaign rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania.this week vowed to block the purchase of U.S. Steel by Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel Corp., promising to bolster the domestic steel industry with
The experts warned, however, that a potential rekindling of consumer price increases as a result of the wide-ranging tariffs could damage the steel industry as part of a wider economic slowdown.The policies also risk harming the nation’s manufacturing sector as a whole, since the tariffs would hike costs for factories that rely on raw steel as an input, making those firms less competitive with their international counterparts, the experts said.
Tariffs remain popular with steel industry leaders. The Steel Manufacturers Association, or SMA, the largest U.S. trade association representing steelmakers, has urged the incoming Trump administration to strengthen steel tariffs. In 2018, Trump slapped tariffs on aluminum and steel from a host of countries, including Mexico, Canada and the European Union.The average price of a ton of hot-rolled steel -- a common metric used for steel prices -- soared from about $700 to $1,850 between 2017 and 2021, according to aHowever, prices also spiked in non-U.S. steel markets over that period amid a global rise in demand, leaving only a modest impact from the tariffs, the study found.
Technological advances in steel production have made the work less labor intensive, reducing the need for employees, Katheryn Russ, an economics professor at the University of California, Davis, told ABC News. “Everybody who buys steel would now have higher costs,” Handley said. “We can have a debate about who should win or lose from that, but you can’t have everybody win.”