China Steel Corp (中鋼), Taiwan’s largest steelmaker, yesterday said that the US President Donald Trump’s announcement last week to double tariffs on imported steel and aluminum to 50 percent would have a limited direct impact on its operations, as the company's exports to the US accounted for just 0.4 percent of Taiwan’s total steel exports to the US last year.
The company shipped about 9,000 tonnes of steel to the US in 2023, significantly less than the 200,000 tonnes it exported to Mexico and Canada combined, China Steel said in a statement.
Trump on Friday told Pennsylvania steelworkers that he would hike tariffs on imported steel and aluminum products to 50 percent from 25 percent starting tomorrow.
Photo: AFP
The tariff hike would weaken the price competitiveness of Taiwanese steel and iron products exported directly to the US, especially those producing single-pass rolling steel, API pipes, fasteners and auto components, China Steel said.
“Since we mainly provide [raw materials] for domestic downstream customers to process and export, if the US tariffs affect their export orders, it might indirectly affect our sales,” China Steel said. “We will maintain close cooperation with clients to develop countermeasures and mitigate the impact.”
Still, “some of our clients need to negotiate with US importers over who will absorb the tariff costs,” a China Steel official told the Taipei Times by telephone, requesting anonymity.
In addition to US tariffs, the company is closely monitoring the rapid appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the US dollar and a surge in Chinese steel supply, the official said, adding that it would adjust its sales strategies, market deployment and product portfolio to stabilize its operations.
However, the official said that export-oriented downstream clients would inevitably be affected by the NT dollar’s appreciation.
That was a key factor behind the company’s decision last month to cut domestic steel prices by NT$600 per tonne, the official added.
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