US flat steel imports in 2025 correlate somewhat to the erratic tariff rollout on steel by US President Donald Trump, Kallanish reports.
The president has introduced a series of steel import policies that have confused market participants, who have been stumped by tariff amounts by country, steel item exemptions, and tariff commencement dates.
Final data provided by the US International Trade Administration’s Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) show that in January, the US imported 922,377 tonnes of flat steel products. Some US steel market participants anticipated higher import rates in January as the market braced for the impact of higher prices and constricted supply chains, which were seen as potential market threats (see Kallanish 11 February).
Other sources were less concerned about how tariff threats would affect the immediate US steel market. Distributors in the flat steel market assessed the tariffs as purely a negotiating tactic by the president (see Kallanish 25 March).
Despite efforts from the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) alliance leaders to persuade Trump against imposing tariff measures (see Kallanish 27 November), on 1 February, he announced that the tariffs would go into effect at midnight on 2 February (see Kallanish passim).
Trump issued 10% tariffs on Chinese imports (see Kallanish passim) in the same executive action, labelling unsanctioned passages of people and fentanyl over US borders as a national security threat. The move applied pressure on the North American allies, persuading them to increase security measures (see Kallanish passim). In the late morning of 2 February, Trump paused tariffs on Mexico for 30 days, and within a few hours granted Canada the same delay (see Kallanish passim). Tariffs on China were not paused.
In February 2025, the US imported 736,460t of flat steel products, the lowest amount since November 2023, when the total was 686,427t, according to the same SIMA data. However, preliminary SIMA data project that US flat steel imports will increase to 749,366t in March.
Trump rolled out additional measures, coined “reciprocal tariffs,” on 2 April, shocking many in the US steel market when they learnt that all steel and aluminium imports already subject to tariffs under Section 232 measures or 301 measures would not be slapped with additional tariffs (see Kallanish passim).
“I wasn’t aware of that. I wonder how much domestic product will be available if mills don’t stabilise,” said a flat steel distributor in the Midwest.
On 9 April, the president announced a 90-day pause on the 2 April “reciprocal tariffs,” except those applied to China. In the subsequent days, suppliers and consumers have scrambled to reconfigure their supply lines and manage costs in the midst of the brewing trade war.
As of 15 April, flat steel imports to the US account for roughly 346,991t, SIMA preliminary data report.
Kristen DiLandro USA
