Tariffs are hovering over a lot of what we do, and effects on pricing are already being seen. In reality, nothing is settled in terms of what the tariffs will be for each country, and what products will be covered, but there are indications of what they will affect.
Steel
First, the United States has a very vital and competitive domestic steel industry. There are enough mills producing top quality Structural Steel, Plate, Shapes and Bar. In terms of raw material source, the U.S. usually posts a trade surplus in scrap iron, meaning that if international trade were removed the net effect on scrap costs should be negligible and possibly drive prices lower.
Imports
There are products, however, that are imported and the tariffs cannot be avoided. Many of these fall into the hardware, forged and sand-cast molded lines. Some examples are;
Fig. 1
Wedge Inserts There is no domestic source for these products. (Fig 1) They are subject to the full import tariff in effect at time of arrival. Since 2017 there has been a 25% tariff on this product line that is already included in the cost of current inventory. The present tariff issues, which started becoming effective on February 1, 2025, seem to change every week. There have been predictions hardware such as Wedge Inserts would be subject to as much as 145% tariff. It remains to be seen how this product line will be categorized.
It is not uncommon to require 2,000 Wedge Inserts or more per project, making it one of the more significant line items in a project after the steel and structural bolts. If, just rounding off, the cost of the Wedge Insert doubles due to recently enacted tariffs it could significantly impact the project budget.
Fig. 2
Askew Head Bolts (Fig. 2) There are domestic bolt manufacturers of Askew Head Bolts, but they are all Made to Order companies with higher costs. Imports have been the predominant source for many years and will continue to be even when the tariffs are included in the cost. To the Estimator and Project Manager this still represents a significant increase which becomes more important when multiplied by the quantity.
Fig. 3
Wedges – Made to order steel wedges are tooled in the U.S. from steel melted and rolled domestically. (Fig. 3) No increase in cost or availability problems are expected. Stock steel wedges, often used in underpinning, are drop forged, mostly in China. Tariffs, if held in place, will directly affect these products and costs could double.
Fig. 4
Turnbuckles, (Fig. 4) Clevises and
Forged Hardware – Many of these items are produced both Domestically and offshore. Should the offshore sources be removed from the supply, the added demand on the domestic factories could not be made up quickly. It is expected that new demand would cause prices to increase, create shortages and dramatically increased lead times. A similar situation developed during the fall out from the pandemic, and lead times from some suppliers went out to as much as 3 to 4 months. In cases like this the estimator and project manager need to budget and plan accordingly.
At present there is no real clear path to follow and no dependable predictions about where and when things will settle out. The plan The Steel Supply Company will follow is to keep inventory well into the future. Regardless of the tariff situation, projects will move forward and construction schedules will need to be kept. When approaching any project requiring products that may be subject to tariffs, feel free to call or email to discuss inventory and supply alternatives.