Asian steel stocks fell early Friday, after U.S. President Donald Trumpsigned tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

Earlier this week, steel producers in the region had clawed back some of their losses on hopes that Mr. Trump wouldn't impose 25% tariffs on steel imports and 10% tariffs on aluminum.

South Korean heavyweight Posco fell 2%, erasing most of this week's gains. Shares of the world's third-largest steekmaker slid 4.5% on March 2, a day after Mr. Trump pledged to impose tariffs. Korea's stock benchmark was recently up 1.4%, buoyed by a potential meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Mr. Trump.

In Japan., the iron and steel sector was the only sector that weakened, falling about 0.5% even as the Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.5% . Nippon Steel and JFE Holdings , the world's No. 4 and 5 steelmakers, are among those with slight declines after having already dropped about 8% each this month.

In Australia, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto fell about 0.3%, underperforming the S&P/ASX 200's 0.6% gain. The global mining heavyweights' products include iron ore, a main ingredient for making steel.


U.S. steel producers finished more than 2% lower on Thursday even as U.S. stocks rose, as Mr. Trump suggested that steel and aluminum imports from a large number of countries could ultimately be exempted from tariffs. The president and aides had originally said no countries would be exempt.

Declines in United States Steel Corp. and Nucor wiped out roughly half of their gains for March.

Mr. Trump "walked back a little from his unilateral tariff announcement...but exclusions are likely to come with caveats demanding reciprocity--that's the kind of guy the president is," said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at forex provider AxiTrader.