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Foreign Tariffs Backfire For U.S. Steel
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved and first published through IndustryWeek's website.
Industry Week reports that tariffs on foreign steel, announced last year by President Trump as an industry-saving move, have had mixed results for domestic steel producers in the U.S. Companies such as U.S. Steel Corp. and AK Steel Holding Corp., which operate more costly legacy blast furnaces, have lost big, with U.S. Steel losing almost 70% of its market value, or $5.6 billion, and idling two American furnaces last month that couldn’t be run profitably. On the other hand, companies like Nucor Corp., which use cheaper-to-run electric-arc furnaces (EAF) to recycle scrap into steel products, are gaining market share.
U.S. Steel is fighting back, restarting of construction on an EAF facility in Alabama and investing $1 billion to upgrade facilities in Pennsylvania that produce high-strength steel for the automotive industry. The tariffs kicked in as global demand was cooling, dropping prices, just U.S. steel makers were investing in increased production. Timna Tanners, an analyst at Bank of America called the industry’s push to add capacity without enough demand “Steelmageddon” and told Industry Week, “Be careful what you wish for.”
Read the complete story on the Industry Week website.
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