President Donald Trump set 25% trade tariffs for aluminum and steel imports from most countries on Monday. Steel and aluminum are the primary materials used in fabricating racks and mounts deployed in solar construction. Solar panels are wrapped in aluminum frames, rooftop solar projects use aluminum rails and attachments and ground-mounted arrays are built on steel racking.
In 2018, during his first presidency, Trump imposed import tariffs of 25% for steel and 10% for aluminum. These latest tariffs are an extension of Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs, which exempted the duty from certain countries, but this iteration notes no countries unaffected by them. Instead, the administration is open to discussing tariff adjustments with countries with which the United States has a “security relationship.” The proclamation refers to the import of aluminum and steel as a “threat to national security.”
At their advent, the Section 232 tariffs caused fluctuations in domestic steel and aluminum pricing, especially for companies using a diversified stock of materials. In turn, this affected the cost of solar installations. Solar racking manufacturers had to adapt to market volatilities to complete projects commissioned before and after the tariff placement.
While the Inflation Reduction Act has increased domestic solar manufacturing since it was enacted in 2021, creating an unprecedented solar racking manufacturing economy in the United States, Trump has frozen disbursement of those subsidies during a 90-day investigation conducted by Russell Vought, the director of Office Management and Budget, and Keith Hennessy, the assistant to the president for economic policy.
