Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 lets a president restrict imports on national-security grounds, and steel has lived under those restrictions since 2018. The mechanics are straightforward: a 25% tariff on most foreign hot-rolled coil raises the landed cost of imported steel above what domestic mills charge, which means U.S. producers can hold their selling prices higher than they otherwise could. When domestic hot-rolled coil spreads widen — the gap between the price of a ton of steel and the input cost of scrap — margin follows directly into operating income. That is the Section 232 premium, and it shows up most cleanly in the order books of the domestic electric-arc furnace mills that buy scrap and sell finished steel.
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