Trump says he is considering using quotas, tariffs to deter steel dumping

Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

An American flag is seen as contractor walks on a steel beam while working on the Korean Air Lines Co. Wilshire Grand hotel and office building in downtown Los Angeles, California

Steel stocks jumped Thursday after a report President Donald Trump said he is considering quotas and tariffs on steel imports to the U.S.

Shares of U.S. Steel traded 3.5 percent higher, while AK Steel leaped more than 5.5 percent.

“There are two ways — quotas and tariffs. Maybe I’ll do both,” Trump said Wednesday evening, according to excerpts of his conversation with reporters on Air Force One. The transcript was made available Thursday afternoon.

“Not only China, but others. We’re like a dumping ground [for steel], okay?” Trump said. “They’re dumping steel and destroying our steel industry, they’ve been doing it for decades, and I’m stopping it. It’ll stop.”

Many on Wall Street upgraded the steel stocks in anticipation of a tougher U.S. announcement on foreign steel producers, in favor of the U.S. firms.

“President Trump’s comment today about quotas and tariffs on steel and the positive response across steel stocks suggests more upside ahead when an official announcement is made by the Commerce Department,” Jim Strugger, managing director, derivatives strategist, at MKM Partners, told CNBC in an email Thursday. “We’re suggesting that clients get long or longer here.”