https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion...s/201808170025
Good signs on steel: Trump’s policy is bringing new life to the industry
the Editorial Board
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Aug 16, 2018 11:00 PM
President Donald Trump’s steel tariff policy was intended to promote and encourage the expansion of the American steel industry, and there is evidence it may be working.
Consider one example: The owners of a steel mill near Delta, Ohio, North Star BlueScope Steel LLC, have announced plans for a possible $700 million expansion over the next two to three years.
Production would increase by another 600,000 to 900,000 metric tons per year.
The plant already puts out 2.1 million tons of rolled steel coils per year.
These hot rolled bands of steel are later are used to make parts for various industries, including the automotive, construction, agriculture and general manufacturing sectors.
The company has said that if it goes forward with an expansion, it would add a third electric arc furnace and a second slab caster to the plant.
Many of the pundits and self-proclaimed experts said this kind of thing would
never happen — steel could not come back, even a little.
Meanwhile, a global trade advocacy organization, Coalition for a Prosperous America, said its analysis shows 11,100 manufacturing jobs have been created, notably in domestic steel and aluminum production.
Over the past six months, 4,960 new steel jobs have been created or announced across the U.S., with another 2,899 jobs in the aluminum industry.
Mr. Trump has imposed tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum.
The tariffs have drawn cries of pain from manufacturers who will have to pay more for imported steel, or find domestic steel suppliers, and from farmers who are being hit by retaliatory tariffs from China, Canada and the European Union.
But steel making is a backbone and bedrock industry for our economy, and for any nation that wants to be, or remain, a world power in the 21st century. It is a matter of national security as well as economic strength.
The president saw both points intuitively. Indeed, a fair deal for American industry in trade is the core of his political belief system, though still new and a bit of a shock to many Republicans.
Now the market is responding as expected, as steelmakers begin to replace imported steel that may no longer be economically preferable.
The Trump “America first” policy may be hard to apply in some instances, especially in matters of pure foreign policy.
But as foreign
economic policy, it is hard to argue with in principle and tremendously refreshing: What is being “protected” is not an American share of this or that market, but American manufacturing, which is to say American jobs. These are the jobs of our fellow citizens working in steel, autos or tires, mostly in the American heartland and South.
It seems only right, and long overdue, that
they should get some measure of protection from their government.
The evidence is mounting that, with help from the federal government, steel
can come back.
