Donald Trump to hike steel, aluminium tariffs to 50 per cent: Will this impact India’s steel industry?

US President Donald Trump, on Friday, addressed workers and management at the US Steel’s Mon Valley Works–Irvin Plant in Pittsburgh and announced that he was doubling down on tariffs on the metal alloy imported into the country. India exports a significant amount of steel to the US.

Apart from announcing a landmark deal for Japanese industry titan Nippon Steel to invest in the storied US steelmaker, Trump also stated that he planned to double the levies on imported steel in a bid to “further secure the steel industry in the US.” This move, however, could push steel prices sky high, for it has already jumped 16 per cent since Trump took office.

In the US, steel went up to $984 a metric ton in March 2025. In contrast, the average steel price in Europe is $690 per metric ton, while a paltry $392 per metric ton in China, according to figures by the US Commerce Department.

Apart from being an active steel producer, the US imports the alloy and articles from it from Canada, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, and even India. Currently, the duty on steel imports to the US is 25 per cent.

Trump later took to his Truth Social platform and posted that aluminium tariffs would double to 50 per cent, and both hikes would go into effect on Wednesday, June 8.

India, according to official commodity-wise data of exports, exported ₹4,984.39 crore worth of ‘Iron and Steel’ to the US in April-March 2025, up 26.66 per cent year-on-year. Under the head ‘Articles of Iron or Steel’, exports during the same period to the US went up to a staggering ₹26,385.84 crore, jumping 14.08 per cent year-on-year.

Together, they make up the sixth most exported commodity category to America, after electric machinery including equipment and parts, precious or semiprecious stones and jewellery (including pearls, derived articles, etc.), pharmaceutical products, nuclear reactors (and boilers, machinery, and mechanical appliances along with parts), and mineral oils along with products of their distillation (including bituminous substances and mineral waxes), according to Commerce Ministry’s export data for fiscal 2025.

If importers in the US cut down on Indian steel to avoid tariffs on steel, this could lead to a market slowdown for a commodity that forms a significant chunk of India’s exports to the global market.

Earlier this week, state-run steel giant SAIL posted an 11 per cent jump in consolidated net profit to ₹1,250.98 crore in the final quarter of fiscal 2025.

Overall steel imports to India, however, rose 9.2 per cent to 10.5 million tonnes in the last fiscal, while exports slowed by 27 per cent to 6.3 million tonnes. This meant India was a net importer of steel for the second year in a row, adding to the woes of local steel players.

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