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The EU is launching an investigation into the aluminium market to protect the bloc’s beleaguered industry from a surge in cheap imports displaced by Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The European Commission will announce the probe, aimed at verifying a sudden rise in imports and covering all trading partners, on Wednesday, according to a document seen by the Financial Times.

Brussels will impose countermeasures if the probe identifies such an increase in aluminium imports. It is also set to tighten loopholes in its tariff regime on steel imports.

The document says the 25 per cent tariffs on aluminium announced by the US president last week “are likely to worsen the situation further” for a sector that has been hit by high energy prices, sluggish demand and cheap imports.

Brussels has promised to retaliate against Washington with tariffs on up to €26bn of US products.

But the aluminium probe shows the impact of the US president’s tariffs cascading across the globe as the commission tightens its rules against third-country imports and a broader trade war comes closer.

The EU document highlights what it says is “a significant threat of trade diversion from multiple destinations” because of last week’s US tariffs.

It notes the bloc’s aluminium producers have “lost substantial market share over the past decade”.

Other than Norway and Iceland, which are part of the bloc’s economic area and could be exempted, the main exporters of the metal to the EU are the United Arab Emirates, Russia and India.

The bloc decided last month to phase out Russian aluminium imports by the end of 2026.

While the US has used security grounds to justify its measures, the EU will base its response to any surge in aluminium imports on traditional trade defence law based on World Trade Organization rules.

Its safeguard measures could echo previous steps it has taken on steel, for which in 2018 it set a 25 per cent tariff on imports exceeding a specified quota.

The safeguards on steel will expire in June 2026 but the commission document says it will ensure adequate protection for the industry beyond that date.

The bloc’s 2023 steel production was the lowest since records began, with the exception of the pandemic years.

Pressure on the industry was “likely to be exacerbated” as other countries raise tariff barriers to keep out Chinese metal blocked by the US, the commission said. It added the EU could become the “main receiving ground of global excess capacities” for steel.

The commission will expand its steel measures to prevent China using third countries to circumvent them.

It will also consider a plan to hit nations that restrict exports of scrap metal to the EU with a reciprocal ban.

EU scrap steel exports have more than doubled in recent years to account for 20 per cent of production, denying steelmakers a raw material.

The draft metals action plan, which could still change before publication, was first reported by Table Media.

The action plan also promises greater protection under the carbon border tax that comes into force next year as well as attempts to help the industry reduce its carbon emissions.

Companies have complained they cannot afford to invest in new technology such as hydrogen-powered blast furnaces.

The steel industry estimates it must spend €14bn annually until 2030 to decarbonise. “Most of these projects are not likely to be economically feasible in the current environment”, the document says.

The commission suggests member states could reduce energy taxes for heavy industry and provide greater subsidies for hydrogen.

It will encourage customers to buy green steel, which is more expensive than conventional supply, by changing procurement rules and setting resilience and sustainability measures for many industrial products.

The commission declined to comment on the proposal but said its action plan would indicate additional sector-specific priority actions as well as long-term measures to replace trade defence safeguard measures expiring in June 2026.

Clean up efforts have started in several US states which endured destructive storms that killed more than 40 people over the weekend.

The massive storm system in question swept across at least eight states in the south and midwest over the weekend, with multiple tornadoes, wildfires and dust storms descending on the region, destroying thousands of businesses and homes.

The governors of Arkansas, Georgia and Oklahoma each declared a state of emergency over the weekend in the wake of the storm. Red flag warnings still remain for states in the midwest and south, including Texas and Oklahoma, meaning those states are still at risk of high, dry winds that could lead to wildfires.

There were 96 tornadoes reported in the region on Friday and Saturday, according to the National Weather Center’s Storm Prediction Center.

The death toll from the storm continued to go up on Sunday after two children were killed in Transylvania county, North Carolina, after a tree fell through their family’s trailer.

Missouri has the highest death toll, with 12 dead from tornadoes and wildfires that hit the state. At the storm’s peak, more than 140,000 homes and businesses lost power. As of Monday morning, more than 20,000 customers in the state were still without power.

In a statement on Sunday Mike Kehoe, Missouri’s governor, said: “The scale of devastation across our state is staggering.”

Hurricane-force winds in Texas and Oklahoma led to wildfires that spread in multiple communities across the two states. In Oklahoma, at least 130 wildfires had been reported in the state by Friday, with the dry, powerful gusts setting large swaths of land aflame. A ranch outside of Oklahoma City owned by the governor, Kevin Stitt, was burned in one of the wildfires.

In a video taken for social media, Stitt showed the remains of his ranch, saying that he is “rebuilding with all of Oklahoma”.

“You never think it’s going to happen to your place, and these wildfires just come out of nowhere and can really take over,” Stitt said.

In Kansas, at least eight people died after a 70-vehicle pileup on an interstate highway during a dust storm on Friday afternoon that led to near-zero visibility on the roads.

On the Louisiana-Mississippi border, two powerful tornadoes formed concurrently and took the same path, ultimately leaving three dead in Tylertown, Mississippi, a town of fewer than 2,000 people.

William Shultz of Tylertown told NBC News that he was “holding my wife to my chest and just watching everything disappear and watching everything get ripped out away from me”, he said. “I’m just thankful to be alive.”

In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Donald Trump said that the national guard had been deployed to Arkansas, where tornados have left three dead. The president also said: “My administration is ready to assist state and local officials as they help their communities to try and recover from the damage.”

Trump’s statement notably lacked any mention of help from the Federal Emergency management Agency (Fema), which helps with disaster reliefs after severe weather events. The president and Elon Musk, the head of the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) and the architect behind the mass government layoffs, have come under criticism for laying off workers in agencies including Fema.

Advocacy groups have pointed out that it appears hundreds of Fema employees have been terminated over the last few weeks. In January, after being sworn into office, Trump floated the idea of scrapping Fema completely, calling it “very bureaucratic” and “very slow”.