The list of countries affected by President Donald Trump’s newly enacted tariffs on steel and aluminum imports has not yet been finalized.

But the impact of a 25 percent surcharge on steel and a 10 percent surcharge on aluminum already is starting to mount as domestic suppliers, contractors and manufacturers try to get a handle on the new policy, which was signed into law only a few weeks ago. Some observers say the tariffs are good for domestic steel producers, while others say the surcharges have only served to increase prices of consumables.

“Everybody in the steel industry is going, ‘Yes, it’s about time somebody is stepping up to the plate,” said Cindy Stott, owner of C & L Metal Sales, a Northeast Portland firm specializing in structural steel material and decorative items.

The new tariffs have not had the impact on prices of raw materials some are suggesting, Stott said. Instead, she said this is just the latest step in a saga dating back to the run-up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. It was then, she said, that Chinese steel manufacturers ramping up to produce materials needed for the games started selling excessive quantities overseas. Even worse, much of that steel, she said, was inferior in quality.

“They were trying to build fast enough, and not producing the correct materials,” Stott said. “They were keeping the elite stuff and they were selling the rest.”

China is by far the largest manufacturer of steel in the world. As China goes, the industry follows. And Chinese steel and aluminum are entering the U.S. at such a scale that they constitute a threat to national security, according to a Feb. 16 report released by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross under auspices of Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.

Among the key findings of the Commerce Department’s investigation were that the U.S. is the world’s largest importer of steel and that it produces just one-quarter as much as it imports. Also, steel employment in the U.S. has fallen by 35 percent since 2000, according to the report. Meanwhile, world steelmaking capacity is up 127 percent from 2000, while demand for steel has slowed during the same period.

It’s a confusing market, and to some industry professionals, the latest tariffs have only succeeded in complicating their business.

“There has definitely been an impact on pricing,” said Abe Villarreal, longtime general manager at Eastside Steel in Portland. “It took effect more on the discussion of enacting (Section) 232, rather than the actual signature on paper. But we saw significant increases in the first quarter, rather than more recently. On light sheet metal goods and light tubing that is rolled, there has been in neighborhood of 20 percent increase. On heavy structural it’s been more in the nine to 13 percent range.”

As a fabricator, Eastside Steel produces a wide range of products for end users in the Portland area and further afield. As such, Villarreal said, the company already sets quality standards for raw materials that have allowed it to avoid the troubles described by Stott.

“As far as quality and dumping, maybe that’s been the case from a manufacturer’s point of view,” he said. “But in my personal world, we buy and sell raw steel product to manufacturers and we have very little issue with quality from oversea.”

Villarreal added that the large majority of raw steel purchased by his company is actually produced domestically.

“The mainstream media would lead the consumer to believe that we don’t roll steel in America anymore,” he said. “But most of what I see every year is American made.”

Despite that, Pat Prentice, general manager of The Lynch Company, a Southeast Portland steel fabricator, said the issue isn’t where the steel is produced but how much of it and at what cost.

“I think what’s worse than the price increases,” he said, “which is going to end up costing the consumers, not me, is that the availability isn’t there. The mills are now wagging the dog. They’re dictating when they roll different materials, so when there are critical jobs coming up and loans from the bank and crews are set up you can’t find the material you need.”

Prentice said he wished the Commerce Department planned better for these types of circumstances, which have happened before and are likely to happen again.

“The biggest problem is when you do something like put a tariff in place, it’s important to plan and not just have a knee-jerk reaction,” he said. “And I think the plan should have started off speaking with domestic mills and saying ‘Hey, if you hold your domestic prices down while we put tariffs on, we’re more competitive. But that didn’t take place. Instead, domestic mills raised their prices 25 and 10 and it didn’t change anything. Nobody benefited. All it was was a mandated price hike.”

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