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Trump Says Steel and Aluminum Tariffs Will Double to 50%

The president at a rally says U.S. Steel, which is in a deal with Nippon Steel, will remain U.S.-controlled

WEST MIFFLIN, Pa.—President Trump said he would double tariffs on imported steel, a move he said would bolster the domestic industry and protect U.S. jobs.

Trump announced the higher duties at a rally near Pittsburgh promoting a $14 billion deal between Tokyo-based Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel, which the president said would ensure U.S. control over the storied steelmaker.

“There’s never been a $14 billion investment in the history of the steel industry in the United States,” Trump said Friday evening before several hundred steelworkers in hard hats and a backdrop of giant steel coils in a cavernous U.S. Steel mill. “Most importantly, U.S. Steel will continue to be controlled by the U.S.A.”

Trump said tariffs on imported steel, as well as aluminum, would increase to 50% from the current 25%, effective June 4. Global prices for steel have been falling in recent months, making it easier for steel buyers to pay the existing duty on imports and still acquire steel at a discount to domestic prices.

The higher tariff also will give domestic steelmakers more power to raise prices. Steel demand and prices have been cooling since April.

Trump has hailed the planned deal between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel as a partnership. Nippon Steel for the past year and a half has been pursuing a takeover of U.S. Steel, in recent months pledging additional investment in the company’s plants to help win Trump’s backing.

“We haven’t seen that final deal, but they’ve made a very big commitment,” ​Trump told reporters after flying back from Pennsylvania.

Many details remain unclear about a deal that could reshape the American steel sector. Since last week, Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel have remained tight-lipped about the next steps.

Federal oversight of U.S. Steel is expected to be part of a national-security agreement between the government and Nippon Steel. The company has offered to establish a separate board to oversee its North American business operations, The Wall Street Journal has reported. 

U.S. citizens would make up a majority of the board, and top managers of the company would also be Americans. A federal monitor would be appointed to oversee Nippon Steel’s compliance with the national-security agreement under the proposed arrangement.

Nippon Steel had sought full ownership of U.S. Steel, saying that its heavy investment in technology and equipment upgrades wouldn’t be justified otherwise.

 

Donald Trump applauding at a steel mill.
President Trump arriving at a U.S. Steel facility in West Mifflin, Pa. Photo: saul loeb/AFP/Getty Images

 

On Friday, U.S. Steel Chief Executive David Burritt and Nippon Steel Vice Chairman Takahiro Mori took the stage before Trump and said the deal wouldn’t have happened without the president’s intervention. 

“You have placed your trust in us, and we will do our part in the years ahead to earn that trust,” Mori said. “Now, we will start to make the massive investments that will transform U.S. Steel.”

“Because of him, U.S. Steel stays mined, melted and made in America,” Burritt said.

U.S. Steel shareholders have said they haven’t received notice of any changes to the terms of Nippon Steel’s $14.1 billion offer, suggesting to some that the original deal will be completed. Nippon Steel’s offer of $55 a share for U.S. Steel expires on June 18. 

U.S. Steel, which employs 14,000 workers in North America, will keep its headquarters in Pittsburgh and retain the U.S. Steel name, Trump has said, describing Nippon Steel as a “partial owner.”

Trump said Friday that Nippon would invest $2.2 billion in U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley Works outside Pittsburgh, and $7 billion on modernizing equipment or production expansions in Indiana, Alabama, Arkansas and Minnesota. Under the deal, the company’s blast furnaces would operate for the next 10 years and workers would each receive a $5,000 bonus.

In January, then-President Joe Biden blocked the deal on national-security grounds. Trump too had opposed the sale of U.S. Steel, frequently bashing the deal last year on the campaign trail.

After starting his second term, he restarted talks with Nippon Steel executives, with an emphasis on upping the company’s investment commitments beyond the $2.7 billion it had pledged under the Biden administration. Trump ordered a new national security review of the deal in April.

Leadership at the United Steelworkers, the union that represents U.S. Steel employees, has strongly opposed a sale to Nippon Steel. The union said Friday it remains skeptical of Trump’s arrangement, because of a lack of details about investments and clarity on whether Nippon Steel is buying the entire company.

“Whatever the deal structure, our primary concern remains with the impact that this merger of U.S. Steel into a foreign competitor will have on national security, our members and the communities where we live and work,” said David McCall, president of the United Steelworkers.

Nippon Steel has said it would not interfere with U.S. trade policies and wouldn’t import steel from its Asian mills as a substitute for churning out products from its American factories.

U.S. Steel workers for years have fretted about diminishing investment in the company’s older mills, especially the three plants that make up Mon Valley Works near Pittsburgh. U.S. Steel had threatened to halt production at Mon Valley if the company couldn’t sell to Nippon Steel, saying it couldn’t afford the necessary upgrades.

Kim Beveridge, 64 years old, a U.S. Steel mobile crane operator attending the rally, said those threats and the company’s cancellation of more than $1 billion of planned improvements at Mon Valley in 2021 were like a “slap in the face” to many workers. He said he welcomes Nippon Steel’s promised investments. 

Beveridge said he worries about the lack of details about the deal—“Who’s going to be calling the shots?” he asked—but said he trusts Trump’s business acumen and believes the deal will benefit workers.

Chris Kelly, the mayor of West Mifflin, Pa.—home to the Irvin Works, the site of Friday’s rally—said everyone he’s talking to locally is upbeat about the news, despite not knowing the full details.

“I’m taking it as positive,” Kelly said. “They’re having a big rally. They’re not having a big rally to say we lost our jobs.” 

Write to Kris Maher at Kris.Maher@wsj.com and Bob Tita at robert.tita@wsj.com

Appeared in the May 31, 2025, print edition as 'Trump Doubles Tariff on Steel, Aluminum'.

Author: Kris Maher and Bob Tita

Source: WSJ:

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