One Year After Trump's Liberation Day Tariffs: Here's How These 4 Steel And Aluminum Stocks Fared

• Century Aluminum surged 245% in the past year, far outpacing peers and benchmarks.
• Steel Dynamics and Nucor rose 48% and 45%, beating the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.
• Cleveland-Cliffs gained just 2%, even as tariffs boosted industry demand.

A year after President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs reshaped the U.S. metals trade, the scoreboard across steel and aluminum stocks is anything but uniform. While Century Aluminum (CENX) has surged more than 200% and outpaced the broader market by a wide margin, peers like Steel Dynamics (STLD) and Nucor (NUE) posted strong gains, while Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) barely moved.

CENX shares have surged 245%; STLD and NUE rose 48% and 45%, respectively, outperforming the S&P 500, which rose 17%, and the Nasdaq, which gained 13% over the same period. Meanwhile, CLF gained 2%, underperforming the broader benchmarks.

The divergence comes despite a broadly supportive policy backdrop. Three months after the initial tariff rollout, the Trump administration raised duties on steel and aluminum imports from 25% to 50%, aiming to curb imports and boost domestic production.

A year since the tariff imposition, the President’s administration is reportedly preparing to outline a tiered system for its broad tariffs on steel and aluminum products. While maintaining 50% tarrifs on a large number of derivative products, many other products will be tariffed at a lower 25% rate, while some products will fall below that duty level.

Industry Players Say Tariffs Have Already Tightened Supply and Improved Order Visibility. 

In February, CENX said that Trump’s trade policies strengthened its commitment to reshore U.S. production of primary aluminum. Over the last year, CENX increased total U.S. primary aluminum production by almost 10% through the expansion of its smelter and plans to build a new smelter, which will double U.S. production.

In its fourth-quarter report, Steel Dynamics noted that high-cost imports, driven by increased tariffs, have created a significant domestic aluminum sheet supply deficit of over 1.4 million tons, which is expected to grow along with demand.

Similarly, Nucor said in its latest earnings call that it expects the full impact of tariffs and recent trade determinations to lower levels of imported steel in 2026, which is why NUE entered the year with historically strong backlogs, up nearly 40% year-over-year in the steel mills segment and 15% in steel products.

Cleveland-Cliffs also reported that its robust order book is the “best confirmation” that the business environment has already begun to improve, and that the 50% tariffs are a leading driver of this impact.

STLD, CLF, NUE, CENX: How Have Retail Traders Reacted?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment toward Century Aluminum mostly remained in the ‘bullish’ range for the year, while message volumes jumped to ‘extremely high’ from ‘low’. While, sentiment towards Steel Dynamics, Nucor, and Cleveland-Cliffs mostly stayed at ‘neutral’ through the year.

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