Steel Showdown: EU Warns Retaliation as Trump Doubles Down on Tariffs
The European Commission (EC) has expressed concern about Donald Trump’s announcement of plans to double import tariffs on steel. The U.S. President proclaimed the new “Trump Tariffs” during a speech at US Steel’s Mon Valley-Irwin works in Pennsylvania on May 30.
“We strongly regret the announced increase of U.S. tariffs on steel imports from 25% to 50%,” the European Union’s executive body said in a May 31 statement. “This decision adds further uncertainty to the global economy and increases costs for consumers and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.”
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EC Says New Trump Tariffs Threaten Ongoing Negotiations
“We don’t want America’s future to be built with shoddy steel from Shanghai,” Trump said to steelworkers at the West Mifflin site, which sits just south of Pittsburgh. The President was in town to celebrate his approval of Japan’s Nippon Steel acquiring US Steel as a wholly owned subsidiary.
Meanwhile, news agencies report that the EC has threatened to accelerate retaliatory duties if the President goes through with the new Trump tariffs on aluminum and steel. EC Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maroš Šefčovič is also due to meet with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Paris on June 4.
“If no mutually acceptable solution is reached, both the existing and possible additional EU countermeasures will automatically take effect on July 14 or earlier, if circumstances require,” news agencies quoted EC spokesman Olof Gill as saying on June 2. He later added, “The commission has been clear at all times about its readiness to act in defense of EU interests, protecting our workers, consumers and industry.”
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Exemptions May Be Necessary
Trump also threatened to impose an import tax of 50% on all imports from the EU from June 1, citing a lack of progress in talks with the 27-member bloc. After making the initial announcement on May 23, he later extended that to July 9.
While many market participants expressed concern over the tariffs, others have noted that steelmakers in the United States either do not produce finished products that match the quality of the material rolled in other countries, or do not produce certain types of steel products. Some sources note that this could potentially cause the U.S. to seek exemptions on entire categories of steel imports.
One analyst told MetalMiner that Chinese steelmakers have also invested at least $500 billion into modernization over the past 25 years, allowing them to produce higher-quality steels as well as downstream products.
EU Also Placing Tariffs on Chinese Tinplate Imports
Also last week, the EC implemented import tariffs of 13-63% on Chinese tinplate. “An anti-dumping investigation preceding the imposition of measures showed that imports of tinplate from China had been dumped on the EU market, which is worth €2.7 billion [$3.08 billion] annually, and were causing damage to EU tinplate producers,” the EC said in a May 28 announcement.
The EC initially announced an anti-dumping investigation on tinplate imports from China in May 2024, partly citing overcapacities.
“The influx of cheap tinplate imports from China has already had serious repercussions on EU tinplate producers. In particular, besides squeezing profit margins, it has resulted in reduced production volumes, capacity utilization, and market share, therefore causing severe injury to EU steelmakers,” the group stated.
According to the EC, “The EU industry lost a quarter of its sales volume from 2021 to 2023, whereas the market share of EU consumption taken by Chinese imports more than doubled in the same period.”
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Tinplate Imports from China Recently Doubled
The International Tin Association also noted in January that tinplate imports from China rose 73% in 2023 and increased again in 2024, approximately doubling the proportion of tinplate imports from China. This fact, combined with the pressure from the Trump tariffs, signals that the EC still has a lot of work to do.
Besides its primary application as packaging for food and beverages, tinplate is also used in chemical and aerosol storage. Other applications for tinplate are in the electronics sector, such as shielding from electromagnetic interference or housing batteries to protect them from corrosion.
Tinplate has also found some use in the automotive sector for light structural parts that need corrosion resistance.
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