As seen in recent weeks, how companies view President Trump's tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum depends a lot on what business they're in.
This week there's been a lot of attention on , which said Monday it would move as a consequence of EU counter-tariffs on U.S. imports.
But steel producers seem happy.
Last week Republic Steel , so it hired 25 new people in Canton, and is recruiting another 50. The company also said it expects to restart its plant in Lorain in September hiring an initial 80 people.
Republic did not make anyone available for an interview this week, it had invested $12 million in the last 18 months to supply increased demand.
But not everyone who works with metal is happy with how things are going.
鈥淚f there was a tariff on imported metal components used in solar, that would be great鈥擨鈥檇 be find with that. But there鈥檚 not, so we have the highest-priced steel in the world and I鈥檓 expected to compete with off-shore products that are imported without a tariff,鈥� says Steve Peplin, CEO of , a Cleveland metal stamping company that makes various components like systems to put solar panels on rooftops.
鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to believe. It鈥檚 kind of the opposite of the government trying to help us,鈥� he says.
I visited him for a future story on renewable energy and manufacturing in Northeast Ohio, but we ended up talking a fair bit about tariffs, and how they are already hurting his company.
鈥淲e are very material-intensive, we鈥檙e a high-volume, high-speed producer of high-volume parts. There was a project we had been working on for five years. Parts are coming from China now, and so it鈥檚 very hard to compete with China鈥攖hey had far lower labor costs, they are subsidized by the government and whatnot鈥攂y being innovative, and creative, and really designing a better system, and taking virtually all the labor out of it鈥攁utomating our process, and using robots鈥攚e were able to compete with China. This is in March, $5 million job, that鈥檚 like 10% of our company, very significant project. We had been working on it for years. They said, 鈥榶ou鈥檙e going to have a P.O. next week鈥︹�� they said 鈥榶ou鈥檝e got the contract.鈥� And then they announce the tariffs in March, this was in February, March. Well it鈥檚 funny, the P.O. hasn鈥檛 shown up yet,鈥� Peplin says.
鈥淭his was four months ago, they said it was going to be any day. I know what happened: the day they announced 25% tariffs on imported steel, U.S. steel went up 24% the same day they announced the tariffs. I mean, why not,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hat I don鈥檛 get is it鈥檚 a hand-out to the U.S. steel-producing industry, steel and aluminum-producing, but what about the consuming industry? There鈥檚 80 of us for every one producer. There鈥檚 It鈥檚 gonna be devastating.鈥�
Peplin points to past tariffs as an example, where major led the to reverse course. And if the current tariffs aren't reversed, some estimate could be at risk.
But for now, Peplin says his company is in a holding pattern to see what happens.
And he鈥檚 not holding his breath that his major contract will ultimately come through.
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