* Voestalpine says up to 3 pct of group sales affected* Thyssenkrupp supplies 400,000-500,000 tonnes/year to U.S.* Voestalpine shares down 1.6 pct, Thyssenkrupp up 0.8 pct (Recasts with German steel association, Thyssenkrupp)ZURICH/FRANKFURT, March 9 (Reuters) - New U.S. tariffs onsteel and aluminium imports will have a limited impact on two ofEurope's top steelmakers, the companies said on Friday, whilesome shares slipped on the move to limit access to the world'ssecond-largest steel market.U.S. President Donald Trump slapped import tariffs of 25percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminium on Thursday,exempting Canada and Mexico and offering the possibility ofexcluding other allies. The European Union as a whole is the biggest exporter ofsteel to the United States, accounting for a fifth, or $6.8billion, of U.S. steel imports, last year, according to figuresfrom the German statistics office.Shares in Salzgitter , Germany's second-largeststeelmaker, were down 2.3 percent. The group did not respond torequests for comments, but its CEO said on Thursday that marketswere overestimating the impact of the tariffs on its business.Other European steelmakers include ArcelorMittal ,the continent's biggest, whose shares were down 1.1 percent,while India's Tata Steel were down 5 percent. The U.S.represents around 10 percent of Tata Steel Europe's sales, anindustry source told Reuters."The extent to which other sales are affected by importrestrictions is being thoroughly examined," Austrian steelmakerVoestalpine said in a statement.Responding to the tariffs, Germany's steel associationcalled on the European Union to come up with effectivecountermeasures, warning Europe might be forced to absorb morevolumes as a result. "A maximum of about 3 percent of current Voestalpine groupsales can be affected by the U.S. tariffs and the economic riskremains very manageable even in extreme cases," Voestalpinesaid.Meanwhile, Thyssenkrupp , Germany's largeststeelmaker, said it only supplied about 400,000-500,000 tonnesof steel a year to the U.S. market, or between 3.3-4.5 percentof total deliveries.Shares in Voestalpine were down 1.6 percent at 0959 GMT,while those of Thyssenkrupp were up 0.8 percent.German steel trader Kloeckner & Co could be onebeneficiary of tighter supply in the United States, its ChiefExecutive Gisbert Ruehl said last week, pointing to theexpectation that prices there could rise.Ruehl said his company received all its steel in the UnitedStates from local manufacturers, adding Kloeckner & Co wastherefore not affected by the tariffs. (Reporting by Michael Shields, Christoph Steitz, TomKaeckenhoff and Maytaal Angel; Editing by Adrian Croft/DouglasBusvine/Alexander Smith)
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