Uncertainty meets resiliency

Toto

As I write this, President Donald Trump has been in office 57 days. In that time, all previous exclusions and quotas that existed under the Section 232 tariffs on imports of aluminum and steel to the U.S. have been eliminated, meaning the tariff applies in full to these metals entering the U.S. as of March 12.

Additionally, Trump used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to enact 25 percent tariffs on all goods from Canada and Mexico entering the U.S., saying the moves were designed to combat the threat to U.S. national security, including public health, posed by drug trafficking. Those tariffs applied to most products entering the U.S., including recycled materials, as of March 4 after the president extended the original effective date of Feb. 1. However, the White House granted another one-month delay for tariffs on automakers with vehicles that comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) March 6, which was extended to all USMCA-compliant goods, including metals recovered for recycling, later that day.

The on-again-off-again nature of the tariffs has created uncertainty for U.S. recyclers and consumers of recyclable materials.

While many recyclers I’ve spoken to over this time say they are used to responding to changing market conditions, they add that the uncertainty accompanying the tariffs makes things especially challenging.

"While the days and months ahead could prove uncertain and challenging for recyclers in the U.S. and their domestic and export customers, the industry has emerged from other challenging periods stronger and more determined.”

Nanci Schuld, CEO of FE Trading, the subject of this month’s cover story, “The problem solver,“ says she loves a challenge, but the uncertainty created by the ephemeral nature of the tariffs are not the typical challenge she’s used to.

“It’s very hard to decipher what all the impacts will be when nobody is certain what will be tariffed and when,” she says.

While Schuld says tariffs on new steel imported into the U.S. should increase demand and pricing for domestic steel, which should increase scrap pricing, as well, retaliatory tariffs could come into play, affecting demand for U.S. exports of recyclable materials.

But Schuld is a big believer in the resiliency of the industry, saying, “No matter what happens, it seems like everybody moves forward, and if we have to change course, we change course.”

While the days and months ahead could prove uncertain and challenging for recyclers in the U.S. and their domestic and export customers, the industry has emerged from other challenging periods stronger and more determined. This likely is no exception.

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April 2025
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