Trump's Tariffs Are Damaging America's Biggest Foreign Source of Screws

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/business/taiwan-manufacturing-trump-tariffs.html

https://archive.ph/00h4l

Trump’s Tariffs Are Damaging America’s Biggest Foreign Source of Screws
Taiwan has long been the top provider of screws to the United States. But its factories are struggling to survive under tariffs on steel and aluminum.
By Meaghan Tobin and Xinyun Wu
Sept. 22, 2025, 12:01 a.m. ET

Taiwan is world famous for making semiconductors and electronics. Its factories have mastered the intricate work of etching circuits onto silicon, churning out most of the world’s supply of advanced computer chips.

The island is also a major source of another essential and often invisible component of everyday objects: screws. And most go to the United States, where they are used to build airports, backyard decks and bathroom cabinets.

Now, President Trump’s 50 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum, which took effect in June, have left Taiwanese screw makers wondering how their businesses will survive the next few months. For the United States, Taiwan has been the No. 1 source of screws and metal fasteners like nuts and bolts for more than three decades, with China gaining ground as the second largest.

Taiwan’s screw factories, in the island’s south, sprawl across industrial districts like Lujhu and Gangshan, where the sounds of chugging machinery echo around the clock.

The area is home to around 1,500 companies making screws, and about one in every eight people works in the industry, according to Chiu Chih-Wei, a legislator from Kaohsiung. The road is littered with so many stray screws and metal pieces that drivers frequently need to replace their tires.

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