Trump tariffs could wipe out European steel sector, senior industry figure says

Europe's steel industry faces being wiped out in the face of Donald Trump's prohibitive 50% tariffs, high energy costs and a mountain of cheaper Chinese steel, one of Germany's biggest industrial groups has warned. Ilse Henne, a board member at the steel, engineering and chemicals group ThyssenKrupp, said the industry faced an existential crisis after the US president's decision last week to double tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from 25% to 50%. Asked at a European Policy Centre conference in Brussels if she "feared a wipeout", she replied: "Of course." Henne, who is chief executive of ThyssenKrupp Materials Services,…