(Bloomberg) -- U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to impose 25 percent tariffs on steel imports set off declines in Asian steel stocks Friday, with a couple of notable exceptions.
Shares of Yamato Kogyo Co. surged as much as 7.5 percent, even as peers including Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. led a selloff in Japanese stocks. It’s seen as a rare beneficiary in the region due to its joint venture with Nucor Corp., the biggest U.S. steelmaker.
“If all H-beam imports to the U.S. were to be suspended, it could in our view benefit Nucor-Yamato Steel as we think it has spare capacity and could step up production to fill the shortfall,” Kentaro Kawachi, an analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc., wrote in a report dated March 1. H-beam prices could “soar,” Kawachi said.
In Australia, BlueScope Steel Ltd. climbed as much as 4.2 percent, excluding dividend impact. The company said last week that it expects the positive impact on earnings at its Ohio plant to outweigh any losses on exports.
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