Why Trump's steel tariff didn't save US Steel workers from layoffs
President Donald Trump told an audience of Pennsylvania union workers last August that his 25% tariff on steel imports was reinvigorating the country's steel industry, and leading companies such as U.S. Steel to expand.
That upbeat assessment is now in question following United States Steel Corp.'s announcement late Thursday that it plans to give layoff notices to take effect later next year to 1,545 workers at its Great Lakes Works production plants, situated in Ecorse and River Rouge on the Detroit River. The plants serve the auto industry.
Steel industry insiders say the layoffs are one likely result of the dramatic drop in steel prices this year and a current supply glut in the market.
Steel prices shot up in the aftermath of Trump's announcement of tariffs in early 2018, only to collapse once older domestic steel plants restarted production and tariff-exempted foreign steel continued arriving on shore.
"Ultimately the steel tariffs did not do what they were designed to do," said Chris Olin, a steel analyst with Longbow Research in Independence, Ohio.
At: https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/2019/12/21/trumps-steel-tariff-us-steel-layoffs/2712706001/
On the chopping block? The U.S. Steel plant on Zug Island, near Detroit.
= new reply since forum marked as read
