UK steelmakers call Trump doubling tariffs 'another body blow'
UK steelmakers said US President Donald Trump's decision to double import taxes on steel and aluminium to 50% is "yet another body blow" to the industry. Trade group UK Steel warned some orders could be delayed or cancelled, with uncertainty surrounding some shipments which are already halfway across the Atlantic. Trump's new 50% import tax will come into effect on Wednesday. It will replace the 25% import tax that Trump announced earlier this year. A UK government spokesperson said it was engaging with the US on the implications of the latest tariff announcement to provide clarity to the industry.
The US agreed on 8 May to drop import taxes on UK steel as part of a trade deal with the UK, but the original 25% tariff has been kept in place while the details of the deal are worked out.UK Steel director general Gareth Stace said: "The deal that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and President Donald Trump struck just a few short weeks ago is yet to be finalised, so this doubling of tariffs plunges the UK steel industry further into confusion...it is yet another body blow for all UK steelmakers in this torrid time. "UK steel companies are this morning fearful that orders will now be cancelled, some of which are likely being shipped across the Atlantic as we speak."Mr Stace said the trade group would now be "pressing our government to finalise the agreement to eliminate UK steel import tax and for it to come into effect urgently". "UK steelmakers should not have to shell out for this new steep hike in US steel tariffs - all we want is to continue producing the steel our US customers value so highly," he said. A spokesperson for the UK government said: "The UK was the first country to secure a trade deal with the US earlier this month and we remain committed to protecting British business and jobs across key sectors, including steel."The Guardian reported on Saturday that UK business secretary Jonathan Reynolds will meet his US counterpart Jamieson Greer at an OECD meeting - a global policy forum - in Paris next week, where they will seek to agree a timeline for exempting the UK from the US steel tariffs.Trump to double tariffs on steel imports
The UK exports a relatively small amount of steel and aluminium to the US - about £700m-worth a year in total - but it is an important market.The UK situation should be relatively simple to resolve but until details of the UK-US deal are worked out, business with America is about to become more complicated and more expensive. It is unclear how long for. The type of specialist steel the UK exports to America - which is often used in things like nuclear submarines - means the US would struggle to source it elsewhere.Tariff-free trade is mutually beneficial. But this is yet another reminder that with Trump, nothing can be ruled out.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Anthony Albanese's government considering a new tax to help Australia acheive its climate targets
Chris Bowen has refused to rule out a possible 'carbon tariff' on dirty cement or steel as he acknowledged that Australia must 'do more' to achieve its climate targets. The Energy and Climate Change Minister was quizzed by the ABC's David Speers about whether he would bring in a carbon tariff. This would see levies placed on carbon-intensive products such as steel, cement and lime imported from abroad and could make the building process more expensive. It is a way of ensuring that Australian companies do not outsource carbon-emitting activities to other countries with less ambitious carbon-reduction targets. 'We have been clear that we want to ensure Australian industry is best placed to compete in a decarbonising world,' Bowen told the program. 'What could be the case is … we look at particular sectors first around cement and lime, [which] are places that we looked at in particular, but I'm not going to get in front of the process… 'We'll have more to say during the course of this term.' The Australian Government appointed Professor Frank Jotzo to lead a review into carbon leakage and what policy options were available to address it. This would see levies placed on carbon-intensive products such as steel, cement and lime imported from abroad and could make the building process more expensive His preliminary report identified cement, clinker and lime as industries in which there was a high leakage risk, while steel, glass and ammonia posed a moderate risk. The European Union has brought in a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which will imposes a carbon tax on imports from countries with less strict climate policies. Bowen's refusal to rule it out was criticised by the Coalition's new energy spokesperson Dan Tehan. 'Now before the election, Chris Bowen, this arrogant minister, said nothing about carbon tariffs,' he said. 'Yet here he is immediately after the election talking about putting them in place.' Tehan accused Bowen of putting Australia's 'energy security at risk' and putting gas and electricity prices up. 'Now he wants to follow Donald Trump's lead and put in tariffs. What a mess,' he added. Bowen said Australia was 'by and large on track' to meet its target of reducing emissions by 43 per cent by 2030. This is despite figueres last week showing little progress was made in 2024. 'We've never suggested it's a linear line … But with the right approach from government, yes, we can continue to be on track (despite) facing headwinds and challenges from time to time,' he said. Labor was criticised by environmental groups for approving a 40-year extended licence to WA's North West Shelf, the largest oil and gas project in the country. The government has a deadline this year to set its 2035 emissions reduction target.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Australia's BlueScope surges on Trump's plan to double tariffs on steel imports
June 2 (Reuters) - Shares of Australian steel producer BlueScope Steel ( opens new tab jumped on Monday to a more than three-month high after U.S. President Donald Trump said he planned to double tariffs on imported steel. Shares of BlueScope, which operates five businesses in North America including the North Star mill in Ohio, were up as much as 9.4% at A$24.88 in early trade. The stock was among the top performers in the broader ASX 200 benchmark index (.AXJO), opens new tab, which was down 0.4%. Trump on Friday said that he planned to double tariffs on imported steel and aluminium to 50%, ratcheting up pressure on global steel producers and deepening his trade war. These proposed tariffs could bode well for BlueScope in enhancing steel prices in the U.S., thus driving tailwinds for the company, said Grady Wulff, a market analyst at Bell Direct. In mid-February, the stock rose 12% after the company's chief executive Mark Vassella said that the business could benefit from Trump's protectionist tariffs. However, shares have slipped nearly 10% since Vassella's statements. Uncertainty of a rebound in demand from China for steel and steelmaking ingredients has weighed on all companies with exposure to this market, Wulff said, along with tariffs which are increasing uncertainty around the recovery of demand for steel-related materials. BlueScope has borne the brunt of weak iron ore prices, which have fallen 3.5% so far this year. North America was BlueScope's biggest revenue-generating segment in the six months to December 31, 2024, accounting for 42%, or A$309 million ($199.77 million), of all underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation. Australia made up 39%, or A$288 million. ($1 = 1.5468 Australian dollars)
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
How Yorkshire Ripper hoaxer who derailed serial killer investigation 'tried to hide his voice when he was finally snared'
The Yorkshire Ripper hoaxer who derailed the investigation into the serial killer desperately tried to hide his voice when finally arrested, a retired police chief has revealed. Chris Gregg, 68, of West Yorkshire Police, has spoken out about the conman 20 years on from the investigation that unmasked him. The so-called Yorkshire Ripper, a reference to Victorian serial killer Jack the Ripper, killed at least 13 women from 1975 to 1980 in a reign of terror across northern England. Peter Sutcliffe was eventually identified as the man behind the killings and jailed for life in 1981. He died in prison in November 2020, aged 74. But it only came after a man named John Humble, dubbed Wearside Jack, had falsely confessed to the killings in 1978 and 1979, in a two-minute voice recording and three letters sent to police and journalists. West Yorkshire Police believed the letters and tape were genuine and diverted resources to Humble's home town of Sunderland. His cruel efforts hobbled police investigations - leaving Sutcliffe at large to kill three more women before his eventual arrest. No one knew it was Humble behind the hoax confessions for a further 24 years after Sutcliffe's conviction in 1981 - until a cold case review by police in 2005. And now investigator Mr Gregg has told The Mirror about finally snaring him - revealing Humble initially just 'kept nodding' in police interviews, knowing his voice would immediately give him away as the man behind the hoax tape. It was only when officers informed Humble a 'one in a billion match' had been made between his DNA and a tiny saliva spot on one of the letters that he eventually confessed - knowing he was caught. With Humble now speaking up in interviews, he then agreed to read aloud a transcript of his original manufactured tape. And only now, a quarter of a century on from that moment, has Mr Gregg re-listened to the recording - describing it as 'chilling' to hear it again. It was advances in forensic science, plus a new police record of Humble - from his arrest for being drunk and disorderly in 2001 - that finally created the breakthrough. With officers finally able to match his DNA to the saliva sample on the hoax letter, they soon found themselves closing in on the culprit. The former security guard was arrested at his home in in the Ford area of Sunderland, where he lived with his brother - just a few miles from the area voice experts had said the hoax taper's accent was from. He was soon brought to Yorkshire for interviewing by Mr Gregg, the new lead of West Yorkshire Police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID). And the cop soon knew he had got the right man, when Humble began reading aloud the tape transcript. The former Detective Chief Superintendent said: 'Humble had quite a remarkable memory. 'He took himself back to when he made it. It was an incredible moment to hear him read it out.' He continued: 'Those last three Ripper victims may not have died had it not been for Humble.' Barbara Leach, 20, of Bradford; Marguerite Walls, 47, of Leeds; and Jacqueline Hill, 20, also of Leeds, were all killed by Sutcliffe between September 1979 and November 1980. Sutcliffe was arrested just eight weeks later - but might have been apprehended sooner had Humble not derailed the inquiry. Mr Gregg, who had been at the heart of the £6million hunt for the hoaxer, said: 'It proved to be tragic. He did something that he never needed to do.' The envelope with a seal that bore the key saliva sample to enable the DNA match was only discovered due to Mr Gregg's sheer determination. Having worked on the Yorkshire Ripper inquiry, he knew he had to get to the bottom of it, enlisting the two original detectives for help. He first worked out the three hoax letters had been destroyed in the original forensics process, having been analysed using a chemical with a destructive effect. But he was not going to give up that easily - and remembered scientists often keep small snippets of evidence in high-profile cold cases such as this one. So, Mr Gregg wrote to the head of the forensics lab in the West Yorkshire town of Wetherby, asking if they could search for any remaining samples. And they were in luck. The police chief received a random phone call several months later to say the lab had found a 3cm sample of the final hoax letter. It was in perfect condition, preserved between two glass slides - and gave them the answers they had been looking for. Mr Gregg said it was one of the defining moments of his career in the police: 'If we had not found him, I am convinced that he would have taken that secret to the grave. 'He had not told a living soul what he had done.' Humble, who was sentenced to eight years in in 2006 after admitting perverting the course of justice, died on July 30 2019.
