STEEL MARKET REPORT
Steelmakers boost crane investments amid market shifts
Even amid uncertainty over the impact of US President Donald Trump’s policies, demand for overhead cranes in the US steel industry is set to grow. Myra Pinkham investigates how leading industry experts are pointing to market volatility, shifting trade policies and evolving technology as key factors influencing future demand, with tariffs, automation and infrastructure investment playing a crucial role in shaping the sector’s trajectory.
N
ot only will it be helped by all the new steel production capacity coming online, but as part of their quest to be
more competitive and more efficient, US steel companies – largely mills, but also distributors, processors and fabricators – are looking to replace, upgrade or modernise their cranes and other equipment to help them achieve their goals. Philip Gibbs, a senior equity analyst for
KeyBanc Capital Markets, says that the US steel market dynamics continue to be highly volatile and uncertain with steel buyers mainly grappling with what the impact will be from the import tariff psychology and the lack of clarity about domestic steel availability.
“They are reassessing their international options at a time when, at least for the moment, all the rules seem to be up in the air,” Gibbs says, particularly as far as how they relate to Canadian and Mexican tariffs and their potential direct and indirect impact upon the automotive market and other steel-consuming end-use markets such as the construction, heavy equipment and energy sectors. “This is coming after the US steel market
had already experienced a challenging 2024, partly because of the impact that the cumulative Federal Reserve interest rate hikes had upon manufacturing demand in certain steel-consuming end-use markets,” Rich Manson, chief financial officer of Olympic Steel, explains, noting that with
lower OEM demand, as well as the ramp-up of additional steelmaking capacity, domestic mill operating rates have been only about 70–75%, down from about 80% when the steel Section 232 tariffs went into effect during Trump’s first term. Manson adds that the Trump administration
believes that it could drive US steelmaking production back up if, through tariffs, he could make foreign steel – including Canadian and Mexican steel – more expensive. Philip Bell, president of the Steel Manufacturers Association, stated that he believes that the American steel industry – which he has described as being the backbone of the US economy and being critical to the nation’s national, energy and
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