Oil and gas industry interests feared higher materials costs, supply chain headaches and 

risks to trading relationships, following the Trump administration's decision to expand steel 

and aluminum tariffs to cover the European Union, Canada and Mexico. 

President Donald Trump decided to impose 25% tariffs on steel imports from Canada, Mexic

o and the EU at midnight Thursday, after temporarily exempting the countries in March. 

S&P Global Platts news feature: Canada, EU, Mexico to be subject to US metals tariffs 

Josh Zive, a trade attorney with Bracewell, said industries dependent on steel have already 

seen increases in materials prices and longer lead times for accessing materials. "It's difficult 

to perceive any scenario in which that doesn't increase" at an accelerated pace, now that the 

tariffs are expanding to the additional trading partners, he said. In addition, he predicted the 

Department of Commerce will see thousands of new exclusion requests filed, adding to the 

thousands waiting for action from the agency. 

Current domestic hot-rolled coil prices are approaching $900/st in the US, with the daily Platt

s TSI US HRC assessment closing at $893.50/st Thursday, up $4.75/st from Wednesday. Spo

t offers for hot-rolled coil, the benchmark, bellwether steel product in the US, were heard as 

high as $960/st Thursday, however mills seem to just be testing the water at levels above 

$900/st and no transactions were heard concluded at this level. 

Based on a breakdown of data from the American Petroleum Institute, about 30% of 2017 

imports of steel used by the oil and natural gas industry came from Canada, Mexico and the 

EU. The White House said it struck agreements with Australia, Argentina and Brazil that would 

exempt them from tariffs but impose alternative means to "address the threatened impairment 

to our national security posed by steel articles."