Steel market participants had varying reactions to US President-elect Donald Trump’s assertion on Monday September 25 that he will impose a 25% tariff of all products being imported from Canada and Mexico into the US, as well as levy a 10% additional tariff on all Chinese imports.

The news that President-elect Donald Trump is considering additional tariffs on goods from China as well as on all products from US trading partners Canada and Mexico has spurred alarm in the US aluminium market at a time that is usually known to be calm.

The merging of two of North America’s lithium producers, Piedmont Lithium and Sayona Mining, aims to provide optionality over growth projects and enhance the companies’ strategic flexibility, according to Fastmarkets’ head of base metals and battery research William Adams.

Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers have been reaching upstream to producers, beyond their agreements with their battery manufacturing partners, to secure North American supply for their production, battery materials and technology company Novonix’s chief executive officer Chris Burns told Fastmarkets

Insteel Wire Products Company announced it will cease operations at its factory in Warren, Ohio, next week.

POSCO Pilbara Lithium Solution (PPLS) will complete construction of Train 2 at its lithium hydroxide monohydrate conversion facility in Gwangyang, South Korea, by early December 2024, a company source told Fastmarkets, with delivery of the first batch of lithium hydroxide expected within two months from then.

Navigating the steel market's new terrain: tariff impacts on global markets and US manufacturing

The shift in China from nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) batteries, which mainly use lithium hydroxide, to lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which use lithium carbonate, is leading to a wider price spread between the two materials, prompting producers there to shift from hydroxide to carbonate.

China’s electric vehicle (EV) and battery industry participants expect more uncertainty under a second Donald Trump presidency amid the president-elect’s intention to scale back the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and pursue expanded protectionist trade policies, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday November 7

The market for silicon anodes is likely to develop rapidly, independently of growth in the ex-China graphite supply chain, according to the chief executive officer of a leading silicon anode producer.