The CEO of Charlotte-based steel giant Nucor praised President Donald Trump’s tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico in a two-sentence statement reported by Fox News Digital.
“Nucor applauds the first steps taken by President Trump in his America First Trade Agenda,” Leon Topalian, the company’s chairman and CEO, wrote in a statement dated Friday. “We look forward to working with President Trump to enforce our trade laws and strengthen American manufacturing!”
Nucor is the nation’s largest steel producer and scrap metal recycler, with $31 billion in revenue over its past four quarters. For many years, the nonunion company has criticized currency manipulation and government subsidies by China and other nations, and it backed Trump’s 2018 tariffs.
Trump signed an executive order on Saturday authorizing tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China through the new International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Today, the president delayed adding a tariff on Mexican goods for 30 days.
Leaders of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers, along with many leading economists, have criticized the tariffs and suggested they will harm the U.S. economy. A Wall Street Journal editorial called it “The Dumbest Trade War in History.”
Executives from U.S. steel companies backed Trump’s 2018 tariffs and have urged him to use them again to support domestic manufacturers.
Nucor shares gained nearly 2% in late Monday afternoon trading as investors perceived that the tariffs could enable Nucor and other steel companies to raise prices, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Canada and Mexico supplied 35% of the imported steel into the U.S. last year, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute and the Census Bureau.