Tariffs on steel are costing Iowa factories hundreds of millions of dollars

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Iowa manufacturers are being squeezed by the highest domestic steel prices in four years, driven by high tariffs and tight domestic supplies.

Peter Orazem, the interim chair of economics at Iowa State University, says U.S.-produced hot-rolled coil steel is the standard for pricing and it’s approaching $1,400 per ton.

“That’s about three times the price of purchasing steel from China,” Orazem says, “and it’s about two-thirds again higher than the price of purchasing steel from Europe.”

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that some tariffs imposed by President Trump were illegal, but a 50-percent tariff on imported steel and aluminum was allowed to stand.

Orazem says prices in the U.S. have risen more sharply than in other countries.

“The price of steel in the U.S. for production purposes has increased about 34% since February of 2025,” he says, “and it’s only increased about one-percent in Canada.”

In a call to investors in May, a spokesman for Quad Cities-based John Deere, Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer, said the company expected about $900-million in net tariff costs for the fiscal year that ended Sunday.

Courtesy: www.radioiowa.com