For many in the metal fabricating industry, making America great again starts with a robust domestic manufacturing base. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen overnight, and the on-again/off-again tariff rollout isn’t doing anyone any favors.
In President Donald Trump’s first administration, tariffs were put in place to shore up the domestic steelmaking industry. Trump and others wondered if the U.S.-based steel industry could survive in the long term without some sort of protection, so the president cited steelmaking’s tenuous future as a reason to increase tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, leaning on Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to do so. Metal fabricators weren’t happy with the move, or the subsequent spike in metals prices, and The Fabricator heard from them.
Well, 2025 is a whole different ball game. Trump made tariffs a big part of his campaign. This didn’t include the Section 232 tariffs, which the previous administration kept in place, but a whole new slate. On April 2, Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs on nearly all of the world’s countries, (including uninhabited ones). However, on April 9, he announced on social media that he was postponing those same tariffs for 90 days, with the exception of China, which saw the tariff rate targeting its imports increase to 125%.
Since the beginning of the year, material prices have jumped. For instance, hot-rolled coil steel has increased more than $200/ton since Jan. 1. Also, if metal fabricators are getting any sort of parts or components from China, they are paying a lot more than they once did. But most metal fabricators seem to be OK with that.
That thinking could cause some long-term damage to the domestic manufacturing base because the Trump administration has not done any long-term planning about this tariff implementation strategy. “Ready, aim, fire!” is no way to unleash policy on a functioning economy.
Tariffs on equipment from countries that were once considered long-time allies of the U.S. only cause the equipment to be more expensive for the companies that need it. And not to be forgotten are the spare parts and consumables, which often come from overseas sources, needed for these machines. These tariffs, for the most part, are an unnecessary tax that impedes domestic growth.
The strange part of this whole tariff discussion is that everyone knows it will take years for the U.S. to become a self-sufficient manufacturing giant again—if it ever happens at all. Factories take years to plan and then build. The right people need to be hired to fill leadership positions, and then a workforce needs to be found before it can be developed. That by itself has proven to be a significant challenge.
The steel industry has Trump’s ear, going back to Wilbur Ross, the former steel executive and U.S. secretary of commerce from 2017 to 2021, and Dan DiMicco, a one-time CEO and chairman of Nucor and trade advisor to Trump. It’s worked out well for them.
Hopefully, someone from the manufacturing industry can grab his attention and have him rethink the tariff plans. Broad-based action is lazy and damaging. Targeted and precise planning provides business leaders an opportunity to prepare confidently for the future.
The act of placing a tax—which the tariffs basically are—on the domestic manufacturing base and then asking those same companies to make manufacturing great again doesn’t make any sense.
If the tariffs have been just a negotiation ploy, it’s done a lot of damage in the name of theater. Let’s just hope there’s time for a decent ending.
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