Trade uncertainty hits materials

A jet engine program can lock in metal orders years before the first plane flies, so a tariff that might exist, disappear, or get rewritten in court halfway through the build is not just a tax question. On April 10, 2026, Reuters reported that a U.S. trade court was hearing legal challenges to the administration’s 10% global tariff, leaving import costs for long-lead industrial purchases in limbo. (reuters.com) The court in that Reuters report is the U.S. Court of International Trade, which handles disputes over customs and trade law. If judges block or narrow the tariff after companies already priced contracts around it, buyers and suppliers can end up renegotiating orders that were supposed to be fixed months earlier. (reuters.com) That timing problem hits aerospace especially hard because aircraft and engine makers buy some parts on multi-year schedules. The Government Accountability Office said in March 2024 that aviation manufacturers were already dealing with shortages of materials and parts, and that dependence on foreign raw materials was one of the supply-chain pressures slowing production. (gao.gov) One of those materials is tungsten, a metal used where heat and wear are brutal. The U.S. Geological Survey says tungsten’s biggest use is in tungsten carbide, a very hard material used in cutting tools, mining gear, and other heavy-duty industrial applications. (usgs.gov) The United States is also exposed on supply. The U.S. Geological Survey said in its 2025 Mineral Commodity Summaries that tungsten has not been mined commercially in the United States since 2015, and that about 60% of U.S. tungsten consumption came from net imports in 2024. (usgs.gov) That is why Almonty Industries made news this week. The company said its tungsten exports were not affected by the U.S. reciprocal-tariff order because the relevant tariff lines were excluded, which it presented as a U.S. tariff exemption for its business. (almonty.com) Almonty is not a random name in this market. The company says it operates tungsten assets in Spain and Portugal and is developing the Sangdong Mine in South Korea, a project it has repeatedly pitched as a major non-Chinese source of supply. (almonty.com) Tungsten sits inside a wider national-security category too. The Government Accountability Office wrote in 2024 that critical materials such as tungsten are needed for military, industrial, and essential civilian uses during a national emergency, and that the Department of Defense has assessed a high potential for harm if those supply chains are disrupted. (gao.gov) So the immediate story is not just “tariffs up” or “tariffs down.” It is that manufacturers now have to treat trade law the way they treat engineering tolerances: as a variable that can change the final cost, supplier list, and delivery date of any program built around specific metals and specific countries. (reuters.com)