Kloeckner remains unconcerned about US tariffs
Steel distribution group Klöckner & Co feels relatively immune to the impact of tariffs imposed by the US government, its chief executive Guido Kerkhoff said during a conference call on Wednesday.
The Germany-based group has operations in the USA as well as Mexico, which together make up a larger share of revenue than Klöckner’s European operations, in Germany and Switzerland. For its US sites, Klöckner sources 97% of product tonnage from US mills. Hence, “the penalty duties affect us only indirectly, if our customers are affected,” Kallanish heard from Kerkhoff. The firm’s pricing is not affected at all, he added.
Given the US government’s target of near-shoring the manufacturing industry, Klöckner’s local business range would in fact grow bigger. “We are a local player, after all,” Kerkhoff maintained.
Regarding the company’s warehouses in Mexico, 45% of the material can be sourced within Mexico, and another 25% is sourced from the USA. “Our sites are approved by the USMCA [United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement], so that we can enter the US market,” he explained. Many of Klöckner’s competitors, but also customers like some carmakers, are much more dependent on sourcing from overseas, he noted.
The company recently completed the acquisition of Haley Tool & Stamping near Nashville, Tennessee. The move expands Klöckner’s manufacturing capabilities with the addition of stamping presses, allowing it to leverage operational synergies across its locations in the region.
Christian Koehl Germany
Trump eases, delays most ‘reciprocal’ tariffs, supersizes China’s
US President Donald Trump has pulled back his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs to 10% for most countries, whilst increasing the amount charged to China to 125%, Kallanish learns from a Trump social media post.
The latest adjustments, unveiled on Wednesday afternoon, pause higher reciprocal tariffs for 90 days on countries that have not directly retaliated against the US.
“More than 75 countries have called Representatives of the United States, including the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, and the USTR, to negotiate a solution to the subjects being discussed relative to Trade, Trade Barriers, Tariffs, Currency Manipulation, and Non Monetary Tariffs, and that these countries have not, at my strong suggestion, retaliated in any way, shape, or form against the United States, I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered reciprocal tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately,” Trump announces in his message.
The tariff increase on imports from China to 125% is also effectively immediately. Earlier in the day, China had announced a boost in its tariff on US-origin imports, raising the levy to 84% from 34% (see separate story).
“China is the most imbalanced economy in the history of the modern world, and they are the biggest source of the US trade problem, and indeed, they are a problem for the rest of the world,” states US treasury secretary Scott Bessent.
Canada and Mexico are still subject to a 25% tariff on goods that do not comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement as well as the 25% tariffs on steel, aluminium and foreign autos.
“The world is ready to work with President Trump to fix global trade, and China has chosen the opposite direction,” US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick adds.
Tariffs on Canada, Mexico definitely start Tuesday
Indicating that the time for negotiations on tariffs with Canada and Mexico is over, US President Donald Trump on Monday said he will proceed with the 25% tariffs on the two countries on Tuesday, Kallanish discovers from the White House press briefing.
Trump told reporters that there is no room for Canadian or Mexican officials to negotiate a reprieve from the levies.
“Tariffs, 25% on Canada, and 25% on Mexico … will start tomorrow,” Trump confirmed during the press gathering. “So they’re going to have a tariff, and what they have to do is build their car plants, frankly, and other things, in the United States, in which case you have no tariffs.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Monday said she was waiting for Trump to make a decision about tariffs and that she might talk with him before the deadline. “Everything is possible,” she said.
John Isaacson USA
US tariffs unlikely to sharply impact Spain
The 25% tariff on exports to the US, announced by President Donald Trump, is not expected to significantly impact Spain, according to the Spanish Chamber of Commerce (CCE). This is because relative prices of steel and aluminium are not anticipated to change substantially, CCE explains in a note seen by Kallanish.
“Change in the current trade framework would negatively impact Spain’s productive sector in aggregate terms. If the 25% tariff on EU steel imports remains in place, it could lead to a 10.4% decline in the total value of Spanish exports on average,” the commerce chamber observes.
Spanish steel exports to the US totalled 264,809 tonnes in 2024, up 0.4% compared to 263,825t in 2023. Their value was $412.2 million, according to data issued by the US Census Bureau.
In October 2021, the EU and the US agreed to implement a tariff-rate quota (TRQ) system for steel trade, which is in force until March. Under this system, 3.3 million tonnes/year of steel can be exported by the EU duty free into the US. However, once this quota is exceeded, a 25% tariff is applied.
Todor Kirkov Bulgaria
Trump officially imposes 25% tariffs on steel, aluminium
US President Donald Trump has officially issued a blanket 25% tariff on all steel and aluminium imports to the US, Kallanish reports.
The president signed an executive order creating the tariff on Monday night. The move was expected after Trump mentioned it informally on Sunday whilst travelling to the Super Bowl football game.
“It’s a big deal,” Trump said Monday in the Oval Office. “This is the beginning of making America rich again.”
Currently, the US has postponed the 25% tariff it planned to enact against Canada and Mexico.
Kristen DiLandro USA
Trump will impose 25% tariffs on Steel and Aluminum
The US president said he planned sweeping tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports on Monday and would take other action to even out tariff rates with the rest of the world later this week.
Donald Trump has said he will announce new 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the US on Monday that would affect “everybody’, including its largest trading partners Canada and Mexico, in another major escalation of his trade policy overhaul.
Trump’s pre-announcement came as China’s retaliatory tariffs, announced last week, came into effect. The measures target $14bn worth of products with a 15% tariff on coal and LNG, and 10% on crude oil, farm equipment and some vehicles.
The US president, speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, also said he would announce reciprocal tariffs – raising US tariff rates to match those of trading partners – on Tuesday or Wednesday, which would take effect “almost immediately”. “And very simply, it’s, if they charge us, we charge them,” Trump said of the reciprocal tariff plan.
The move on steel and aluminum brought a swift reaction from Doug Ford, the premier of the Canadian province of Ontario, who accused the US president of “shifting goalposts and constant chaos” that would put the economy at risk.
Monday’s tariffs would come on top of existing metals duties.
Amid wider pushback against Trump’s economic heavy-handedness, French President Emmanuel Macron warned in an interview broadcast on Sunday that he was willing to go “head-to-head” on tariffs with the US president. “I already did so, and I will did (sic) it again.”
Macron told CNN that the EU should not be a “top priority” for the US, saying: “Is the European Union your first problem? No, I don’t think so. Your first problem is China, so you should focus on the first problem.”
Macron said tariffs would harm European economies but also the US, given the level of economic ties. “It means if you put tariffs on a lot of sectors, it will increase the costs and create inflation in the US. Is it what your people want? I’m not so sure,” he said.
He said the EU must be ready to react to US actions, but stressed that the 27-nation bloc should mainly “act for ourselves”. “This is why, for me, the top priority of Europe is competitiveness agenda, is defence and security agenda, is AI ambition, and let’s go fast for ourselves.
“If in the meanwhile, we have [a] tariff issue, we will discuss them and we will fix it.”
Trump has long complained about the EU’s 10% tariffs on auto imports being much higher than the US car rate of 2.5%. He frequently states that Europe “won’t take our cars” but ships millions west across the Atlantic every year.
Trump pushes tariffs, drilling, manufacturing on Inauguration Day
Donald Trump is officially the US president again, after a dramatic Inauguration Day on Monday that included a slew of promises and day-one executive orders with potential consequences for the steel supply chain.
In his inaugural address, Trump pledged to usher in a new “golden age” and “massive restoration of America.” The 47th president said he will offer stimulus for oil and gas drilling, greater domestic auto production and upgrades to military materiel – all achievable whilst wringing more out of the nation’s trading partners.
“We will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens,” Trump warned.
“America will be a manufacturing nation once again,” he emphasised.
Trump was set to sign formal executive orders on Monday night that include a call for federal agency reviews of trade policies including existing tariffs, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and Buy America procurement rules. The initial pile of documents does not yet establish new tariffs. Nor were any international trade measures specified on the “Administration Priorities” page when the new Trump version of the whitehouse.gov website went live after his swearing-in. The list of priorities does include a pledge to resume construction of a border wall between the US and Mexico. When the prior Trump administration erected some sections of the wall, the project was a consumer of hollow structural sections.
Shortly after his victorious election in November, Trump proposed new tariffs of 25% on goods from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% on Chinese-made items (see Kallanish 27 November). The Canadian government has included US-made steel and aluminium on its list of potential retaliatory tariffs (see Kallanish 17 January).
Unlike the Trump administration of 2017-2021 when Wilbur Ross was commerce secretary, that department will not be run by a steel-industry luminary this time. Trump’s designee for commerce secretary is Howard Lutnick, chief executive of Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald. Lutnick is a supporter of tariffs and of a more aggressive adversarial geopolitical stance against China. He likely faces his Senate confirmation hearings in the next few days. Pending Lutnick’s confirmation, on Monday Trump appointed longtime Commerce deputy Jeremy Pelter as acting secretary.
In his first inaugural address in 2017, Trump never mentioned China by name. On Monday, he did so only once, as a rationale for seizing control of the Panama Canal. Trump mentioned steelmakers once in Monday’s speech, in the context of past achievements in building the US into a world power.
Peter Navarro, who served as director of the White House National Trade Council during the first Trump term, is back in the new administration as a senior counsellor for trade and manufacturing.
Late Monday, Trump signed executive orders freezing any new federal regulation and withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement on climate. He has promised to ease regulations for the oil and gas industry and other corporate interests and to cut corporate taxes.
Dom Yanchunas USA
