Mounting pressure from US metals tariffs is pushing domestic builders and automakers toward a breaking point, according to industry stakeholders and analysts.

President Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs on imports of aluminum, steel, and copper shocked global markets and shifted trade flows.

The policy measures aim to bolster the US metals and manufacturing sectors. However, the transportation and construction industries, America’s largest buyers of metals, face possible demand destruction as duties drive up input costs.

“[Trump has] put these tariffs on all these industrial metals and he’s put more tariffs on the downstream products, so you will have quite a cascade effect on the US economy,” said Gary Hufbauer, a nonresident senior fellow at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics.

“This will have a major impact on construction and also the automobile sector.”

Declining metals demand from the construction and automotive industries will work on different timelines, Hufbauer told Platts.

“It’ll work slowly in construction because these projects are planned in advance, they’re more long-term,” Hufbauer said.

“I think we’ll really see it in June or July if tariffs stay. But, for automobiles, there will be a more immediate impact. I think we’ll start to see it pretty soon.”