Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum have stood at 50 percent since June 4, 2025, when the presidential proclamation doubling the rate took effect, up from the 25 percent set in 2018, per the Federal Register notice. The rate covers steel imports broadly, with carve-outs — the United Kingdom stayed at 25 percent under its quota arrangement, and derivatives of steel products were folded into the scope in expansions through 2025.
The doubling was announced from the steelmaking city of Pittsburgh as leverage in separate trade negotiations, and the administration coupled it with sector talks on autos and pharmaceuticals. A year on, the rate remains the operative one, and importers have been paying it at entry since.
What did it do to prices?
Mill prices rose after the doubling. U.S. hot-rolled coil traded in the $900-per-short-ton range in mid-2025, up from spring levels, per SteelBenchmarker's published price series — a move consistent with the duty landing on import costs, though demand from data-center construction also supported prices. Downstream, the pattern the 2018 round established repeated: appliance and equipment makers announced surcharges, and construction cost indices rose through the second half of 2025, per Bureau of Labor Statistics producer price releases.
What did it do to jobs and output?
Steel-sector employment rose modestly from roughly 140,000 toward 145,000 jobs across 2025, per BLS payroll data — a gain, but small against the roughly 80,000-140,000 jobs in steel-consuming manufacturing sectors that academic work on the 2018 tariffs found exposed to higher input costs. Capacity utilization at U.S. mills ran in the mid-70-percent range through 2025, per the American Iron and Steel Institute's weekly reports, short of the 80 percent operating rate the original Section 232 finding cited as the sector's target.
What did other coverage skip?
The derivative-products expansions. The June 2025 action and follow-up proclamations extended duties to a widening list of steel- and aluminum-containing products — appliances, hardware, cables — at rates tied to the metal's content rather than the finished good's value. That mechanism puts the tariff inside thousands of assembled products without any new headline rate, and it is where importers' classification disputes are concentrating, per Federal Register filing activity.
What the record shows: a doubled rate in effect since June 4, 2025, higher mill prices, modest hiring, and utilization below target. What it does not show yet: net employment across steel users, which the data will only settle with more time.