Two major domestic producers — Steel Dynamics and Cleveland-Cliffs — substantially raised the price per ton they charge customers in the second quarter, according to The New York Times. All told, domestic steel producers have jacked up prices by 16% this year. 

Mostly what’s driving American-made steel prices higher is President Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign-made steel, which doubled to 50% last month. 

With imported steel more expensive, Ned Hill at Ohio State University said that domestic producers are just doing what makes sense: “Charging what they can.”

As much as the market will bear, that is.

For Jim Piper, president of Kelair Products outside of Chicago, which makes metal dampers for heavy industry, that’s meant “increases between 15% to 18%” in the price of steel this year.

“It does create a sense of chaos and unpredictability,” he said. “We’re attempting not to share too much of that cost increase with our customers — just because we don’t know where things are going to go.”

Higher steel prices are a big concern for building contractors, who are already dealing with a sluggish economy for construction, according to Ken Simonson at Associated General Contractors of America. 

“They’re hitting both sides of the equation. Contractors’ materials costs are going up,” he said.

That’s all making building projects more expensive — just as they’re seeing less demand and as higher steel prices also hit some of their customers, like manufacturers.