OKAY guys,
as ONE who has used MILLIONS of TONS of STEEL making products over 4 decades, I am going to weigh in on this.
THIS tariff , even if it happens or not, IS NOT GOING TO MAKE ONE IOTA's worth of difference in terms of salability of products being manufactured here, nor reduce our exports.
THIS is all a bunch of total BS and hogwash.
YOu know what happens if the price of raw steel goes up 5 cents a pound? (That is $5.00/CWT) which is a normal price increase. NOTHING is going to happen because most manufacturers can offset those raw material cost increases by reducing costs. THAT Is what Industrial Engineers do for a living btw. They figure ways to make things more efficiently and reduce TIME, MATERIALS, LABOR. Been doing that since my first job at Cincinnati Milacron.
Secondly,
WHERE does all this "LOW PRICED IMPORTED STEEL come from and how much of it do manufacturers use of it as a percentage of all the steel or aluminum ?
(ALUMINUM is scarce btw)
The percentage of cheap steel is MINIMAL to say the least. A few percentage points of the total.
Yes. THAT IS IT.
MOST of our imported steel comes From CANADA and it is not government subsidized like the stuff from CHINA.
Here is an eye opener.
I actually bought some steel from a plant in Monterey Mexico one time. Know what? IT was BETTER than our OLD, and not kept up MILLS here in the Unted States because they use current state of art MINI-MILLS and the methods of manufacturing are mor reliable and consistent in rolling out the sheets to various thicknesses and smoother surfaces.
SO maybe the USW and the Steel companies really need to look at their own houses first and decide to re-invest in their equipment and capabilities.
Of course, another factor that makes steel cheaper from SOME foreign countries is the COST of LABOR to produce it.... Not disparaging what a U.S. steelworker gets paid. It is HARD, and dangerous labor. But the folks overseas in the Asian regions make a small fraction of what OUR employees do and that is a huge part of the costs of a TON of steel..... And benefits costs also.
What we are bellyaching about is a really SMALL amount of trade in the steel industry. This is a big show for the Administration, and it is also a a bunch of crap from those who think this is Armageddon because IF a nation is going to add IMPORT duties onto American Steel going to their country, they shouldn't be bitching if we turn around and do the same thing to their stuff coming in here , and that includes the money their government is subsidizing their product so they can "dump" it here.
It should not be hard for many companies to pass on to consumers what LITTLE cost added to a product IF they even used the cheaper imported stuff.
To me, this is the most laughable and biggest SHAM from both sides of the aisle I have seen in a while....
MUCH ADO about literally nothing. THIS is nothing but a FEEL GOOD moment. Period...
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