Tariffs on Steel Impacting Cheyenne Builders

A month ago a building made mostly from steel would've cost you 10% less to build and about 30-40% less 6 months ago. And local businesses say this price increase is a result of the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.

Since march, when the Trump administration first proposed a 25 percent tariff on steel imported to the U.S. plenty of business people, economists, and politicians have debated what those tariffs could do to U.S manufacturing.

And although Wyoming based companies import nearly all their steel from within the U.S., because of the tariffs, domestic companies now have more leveraging power. And fewer imports means less competition, which typically means higher prices.

And with these prices changing so quickly, building companies in Cheyenne say they can hardly guarantee a price for more than a week.

"We'd give 30 days 60 days," Eric Lewis of Puma Steel said. "But now we give a week maybe 2 weeks, and then it's no longer a valid price."