Steel Products Prices North America
September 23, 2018
First the Question: Where’s the Beef?
Written by John Packard
On Friday, Steel Market Update received a note from one of our readers asking why foreign steel import totals have not dropped. The domestic mills have won countless antidumping and countervailing duty suits against flat rolled and plate products. The president has placed 25 percent tariffs on steel, citing national security as the reason to protect the steel industry.
The goal of Section 232, as originally stated by the Department of Commerce, was to help the domestic steel industry reach and maintain 80 percent capacity utilization rates. It has taken some time, but the mills are essentially at that 80 percent rate (this includes long and flat products), and flat rolled is much higher than 80 percent.
