President Donald Trump has dealt a blow to the Australian steel industry, with a pledge to double the existing tariff on steel imports.
The import tax will deal a heavy blow to the Australian steel industry, which exports close to a billion dollars worth of steel to the USA each year.
The president told Pennsylvania steelworkers he’s doubling the tariff on steel imports to 50 per cent to protect their industry, a dramatic increase that could further push up prices for a metal used to make housing, autos and other goods.
In a post later on his Truth Social platform, he added that aluminium tariffs would also be doubled to 50 per cent. He said both tariff hikes would go into effect on Wednesday.
Australia exports more than $400 million in aluminium to the US each year.
The tariffs have been decried by Australia’s Trade Minister Don Farrell.
“These tariffs are unjustified and not the act of a friend,” Farrell said.
“They are an act of economic self harm that will only hurt consumers and businesses who rely on free and fair trade.
“We will continue to engage and advocate strongly for the removal of the tariffs.”
Trump spoke at US Steel’s Mon Valley Works–Irvin Plant in suburban Pittsburgh, where he also discussed a details-to-come deal under which Japan’s Nippon Steel will invest in the iconic American steelmaker.
Though Trump initially vowed to block the Japanese steelmaker’s bid to buy Pittsburgh-based US Steel, he reversed course and announced an agreement last week for “partial ownership” by Nippon.
It’s unclear, though, if the deal his administration helped broker has been finalised or how ownership would be structured. Nippon Steel has never said it is backing off its bid to outright buy and control US Steel as a wholly owned subsidiary, even as it increased the amount of money it promised to invest in US Steel plants and gave guarantees that it wouldn’t lay off workers or close plants as it sought federal approval of the acquisition.
“We’re here today to celebrate a blockbuster agreement that will ensure this storied American company stays an American company,” Trump said as he opened an event at one of US Steel’s warehouses. “You’re going to stay an American company, you know that, right?”
As for the tariffs, Trump said doubling the levies on imported steel “will even further secure the steel industry in the US.” But such a dramatic increase could push prices even higher.
Steel prices have climbed 16 per cent since Trump became president in mid-January, according to the government’s Producer Price Index.
As of March 2025, steel cost A$1481 a metric tonne in the United States, significantly more than the price in Europe (A$1039) or China (A$590), according to the US Commerce Department. The United States produced about three times more steel than it imported last year, with Canada, Brazil, Mexico and South Korea being the largest sources of steel imports.
Analysts have credited tariffs going back to Trump’s first term with helping strengthen the domestic steel industry, something that Nippon Steel wanted to capitalise on in its offer to buy US Steel.
The United Steelworkers union remained sceptical.
Its president, David McCall, said in a statement that the union is most concerned “with the impact that this merger of US Steel into a foreign competitor will have on national security, our members and the communities where we live and work.”
Trump stressed the deal would maintain American control of the storied company, which is seen as both a political symbol and an important matter for the country’s supply chain, industries like auto manufacturing and national security.
Trump, who has been eager to strike deals and announce new investments in the US since retaking the White House, is also trying to satisfy voters, including blue-collar workers, who elected him as he called to protect US manufacturing.
US Steel has not publicly communicated any details of a revamped deal to investors. Nippon Steel issued a statement approving of the proposed “partnership” but also has not disclosed terms.
State and federal politicians who have been briefed on the matter describe a deal in which Nippon will buy US Steel and spend billions on US Steel facilities in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Alabama, Arkansas and Minnesota. The company would be overseen by an executive suite and board made up mostly of Americans and protected by the US government’s veto power in the form of a “golden share.”
Unionised steelworkers said there is some split opinion in the ranks over Nippon Steel’s acquisition, but that sentiment has shifted over time as they became more convinced that US Steel would eventually shut down their Pittsburgh-area plants.
Clifford Hammonds, a line feeder at the plant where Trump spoke, said at the very least the deal will help upgrade the ageing plant and help increase production.
“It’s putting money back into the plant to help rebuild it, because this plant is old, it’s falling apart. We ain’t really producing as much as we should be because, like I said, this place is old. It’s falling apart. We need some type of investment to fix the machines that we’ve got working,” Hammonds said.
No matter the terms, the issue has outsized importance for Trump, who last year repeatedly said he would block the deal and foreign ownership of US Steel, as did former President Joe Biden.
Trump promised during the campaign to make the revitalisation of American manufacturing a priority of his second term in office. And the fate of US Steel, once the world’s largest corporation, could become a political liability in the midterm elections for his Republican Party in the swing state of Pennsylvania and other battleground states dependent on industrial manufacturing.
Trump said Sunday he wouldn’t approve the deal if US Steel did not remain under US control. He said it will keep its headquarters in Pittsburgh.
The president closed his remarks Friday by thanking steelworkers.
“With the help of patriots like you, we’re going to produce our own metal, unleash our own energy, secure our own future, build our country, control our destiny,” he said. “We are once again going to put Pennsylvania steel into the backbone of America like never before.”
In recent days, Trump and other US officials began promoting Nippon Steel’s new commitment to invest A$21 billion on top of its A$22.3 billion bid, including building a new electric arc furnace steel mill somewhere in the US.
He was joined onstage Friday by several US Steel workers, including Jason Zugai, vice president of the United Steelworkers local union at the Irvin finishing plant that defied the international union in supporting Nippon Steel’s bid to buy US Steel.
Zugai, whose father had lost his job in a steel mill years earlier, lobbied local officials and members of Congress to support the deal, believing that US Steel would otherwise shut down its Pittsburgh-area plants eventually.
In his remarks, Zugai told Trump, “I knew you wouldn’t let us down” and called Nippon Steel’s proposed A$21 billion in investments into steel production in the US “life-changing.”
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