The steel tariffs apply to far more than just chinese steel- which we dont actually import much of anyway. Most chinese steel is cheap stuff- black pipe, rebar, some sheet. But the tariffs hit a lot of countries we import much more from- Canada, for example- those tariffs were just dropped on May 19 or so. So any steel from canadian mills earlier in the year was tariffed.
We import a fair amount of steel from Russia, Germany, Turkey, Vietnam, and other countries that are not china but still have tariffs added.
Somewhere around 25% of the steel sold in the USA, depending on the year, is imported, and a relatively large percentage of that was covered by tariffs, with the Mexico and Canada tariffs being dropped in late may.
But, as mentioned above- when the tariffs went on, ALL US steel prices went up to a "market" price that included the cost of the tariff.
Nobody wants to leave money on the table- Nucor and USS raised their prices too.
I mostly buy stainless, none of it from China, mostly US mills, but some from france, italy, russia, or even korea.
All stainless prices went up within a week of the tariffs being instituted, didnt have anything to do with where it was made. Market price is market price.
I probably paid an extra 3 grand last year in metal costs- lucky for me, it was a low volume year- the year before, I went thru over 12 tons of various steels, and would have had to pay a lot more.