LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Steel Industry (U.S.)
built 236 days ago
The Summit will be held in IU Northwest's Savannah Center Auditorium and includes two panels of national and local business and steel industry leaders led by Visclosky and Indiana Lt. Governor Joe Kernan. The first panel, The National Dilemma, will begin at 8:30 a.m. with Congressman Visclosky facilitating. Panel members include George Becker, former president of the United Steelworkers of America; Dr. Gary Lynch, IU Northwest professor of economics; and Andy Sharkey, president and CEO of the American Iron and Steel Institute.
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The tariffs might have made sense when the U.S. steel industry was flat on its back, but these 13-year-old protections have outlived their purpose and are not necessary to protect a healthy and powerful domestic steel industry. U.S. steel producers are highly profitable, going from significant losses in 2000-2001 to profits of more than $7 billion in 2004, according to the ITC. This is because globalization and consolidation of the industry have led to significantly increased market power: Three steel producers control almost three-fourths of the U.S. market for flat-rolled products, including corrosion-resistant steel. Flat-rolled steel prices have increased 68% since 2004 and steel producers have shown in the past year that they can maintain high prices by shutting down production at facilities when they choose.
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Self-storage industry players understand that steel is a volatile industry with continually changing prices. So it came as no surprise when United States-imposed tariffs on foreign steel led to significant price increases from domestic suppliers last year. But who could have predicted post-tariff double-digit increases in the first few months of 2004?
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The Clinton administration missed a congressionally imposed deadline this week for devising a plan to protect the domestic steel industry from rising imports. The delay can probably be blamed on the no-win politics of the decision: restricting steel imports would appease a small but noisy industry clamoring for special protection, but only by inflicting real damage on a variety of American interests at home and abroad.
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The U.S. industry increased steel shipments by almost 6.5 million tons, while finished imports increased almost 10 million tons in 2004. Profitability of U.S. steel producers was at record levels, even with large increases in raw material costs. U.S. exports of steel posted a small decline of 3.5 percent, as many mills put their customers on allocation in response to strong domestic demand. Many customers reported serious shortages of some products during the course of the year, Phelps says.
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Despite their heavy cost, trade barriers won't even save jobs in the steel industry. U.S. steel mill employment has fallen by 70 percent in the last two decades, despite recurring bouts of protectionism. The reason for the job losses is simple: rising productivity. The integrated steel mills brag, and rightly so, that they have reduced the number of man-hours needed to produce a ton of steel from an industry average of 10.1 in 1982 to 3.9 today. But fewer man-hours mean fewer men and women in the mills.
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Steel Industry (U.S.)