Final Thoughts

The thought is we could well see a pull-back of the Section 232 tariffs by the end of the year. Steel industry executives seem to be leaning in that direction (even though they are lobbying to keep the 232 tariffs) and talking about what is next for the industry. The topic most likely to be moved to the forefront, especially during the Biden administration, is the environment and how to remove carbon emissions from the steelmaking process.

You may have noticed steel mill CEOs speaking about decarbonization during earnings conference calls and press conferences. Lourenco Goncalves of Cleveland-Cliffs, David Burritt of U.S. Steel, virtually all of the U.S. steel mills are talking about cutting emissions. They are also talking about how the U.S. steel mills are already the lowest polluting steel mills in the world.