Almost all the metal stocks listed on Indian bourses crumbled on Friday on US President Donald Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs with shares of Tata Steel losing over 2% and SAIL dropping 5%. The POTUS Donald Trump on Thursday imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium imports to the tune of 25% and 10% respectively. In a major development on Thursday, Donald Trump signed a couple of proclamations which are likely to instigate a global trade war. On the introduction of tariffs on steel and aluminium, shares of giant metal companies all around the Asian subcontinent tumbled on Friday.
On imposing tariffs on steel and aluminium imports to the United States, Donald Trump said, “If you don’t want to pay tax, bring your plant to the USA.” Though the exporters from Canada and Mexico are exempted from the tariffs on steel and aluminium. According to a Reuters report, Donald Trump has offered relief from steel and aluminium tariffs to countries that “treat us fairly on trade,” a gesture aimed at putting pressure on Canada and Mexico to give ground in separate talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which appear to have stalled.
Following the imposition of taxes on imports, almost all the metal stocks faced a jolt in Friday’s session with India’s largest steelmaker SAIL plunging the most among the ‘A’ group shares of BSE. The stock of SAIL fell as much as 4.98% to a day’s low of Rs 70.6 while the shares of Tata group’s steel giant, Tata Steel shed 2.34% to hit a day’s low of Rs 621 on NSE. Other metal stocks which also plummeted on the same lines include, Jindal Steel (down 2.43%), Hindustan Zinc (down 1.8%), National Aluminium Company (down 1.41%), Moil (down 1.32%), Welspun Corp (down 0.88%), Hindustan Copper (down 0.85%), APL Apollo (down 0.85%), NMDC (down 0.81%), Hindalco (down 0.72%) and JSW Steel (down 0.61%). The benchmark Nifty Metal index slipped 1.38% to a day’s low of 3,703.95.
“We’re going to be doing a reciprocal tax program at some point so that if China is going to charge us 25% or if India is going to charge us 75% and we charge them nothing,” US President Donald Trump said before imposing tariffs on steel and aluminium. The tariffs on steel and aluminium imports to the United States will come into effect in 15 days.
“We want to build our ships, we want to build our planes, we want to build our military equipment with steel, with aluminium from our country. And now we’re finally taking action to correct this long-overdue problem. It’s a travesty,” Donald Trump said further. “We want our workers to be protected and we want, frankly, our companies to be protected. By contrast, we will not place any new tax on product made in the USA. So there’s no tax if a product is made in the USA. You don’t want to pay tax? Bring your plant to the USA. There’s no tax,” Donald Trump added.