Nucor chief says tariffs must stay

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ^ | Wednesday, November 19, 2003 | Mike Schneider - Bloomberg News

[Willie Green]

Nucor Corp. Chief Executive Dan DiMicco said the U.S. tariffs imposed on foreign steel in March 2002 are necessary to remain competitive and he called reports of a compromise to end the tax "speculation."

Tariffs allowed the U.S. steel industry "to go through the most massive restructuring and organization in the last 50 years and enabled it to get itself into a position where it can be more competitive globally," DiMicco said in a televised interview.

[Willie Green]

2000 National Productivity of Steel Production

Country		Steel Production  (million metric tons)		Employment  (thousands)		Productivity (tons/employee)
Australia		8.5		21		404
Austria		5.7		12		475
Belgium		11.6		20		580
Brazil		27.9		63		443
Canada		16.6		56		296
Finland		4.1		8		512
France		21.0		37		567
Germany		46.4		77		602
Italy		26.7		39		684
Japan		106.4		197		540
Luxembourg		2.6		4		650
Netherlands		5.7		12		475
South Korea		43.1		57		756
Spain		15.8		22		718
Sweden		5.2		13		400
United Kingdom		15.2		29		524
United States		101.5		151		672

U.S. Steelmaking technology, despite being misportayed by the media and globalism advocates, is among the most productive on the planet. Non-union minimill operators, such as Nucor, even achieve productivity levels exceeding 1000 tons/employee. But minimills are primarily scrap recylcers, and the large scale integrated mills that are still necessary to produce steel from ore tend to skew our national average downward compared to some small nations that recycle scrap only.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Not doubting your stats, but does the US figure include those employed in the mining, processing and shipment of iron ore to US steel mills ?

[Willie Green]

I'm not sure, but if they do, that would be part of the large integrated mills that I mentioned. Same for those who mine and transport coal and convert it into coke. Smaller amounts of limestone are the other basic ingredient, not to mention the different metallic ores necessary to produce different alloys.

But the minimills dispense with this added effort when they recycle scrap.

[Tribune7]

You got stats for the Old Iron Curtain countries?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I have been a supplier to several aspects of the steel industry and am familiar with the stone, iron pellets, etc that go into making steel. Its interesting to see that US Steel is hedging its bet on the future of American steel by buying into European steel manufacturing.

[Willie Green]

You got stats for the Old Iron Curtain countries?

Nothing more than what I have listed.
Looks like my links are slightly out of date.
They still get you back to the website where I sourced my data, but they've apparently rearranged their webpages as they posted newer information.

As I recall, I combined two different lists (one for tonnage, one for employment) to produce my table. I excluded countries (including some old Soviet bloc nations) that only had data on one but not on the other.

But I think it's pretty safe to assume that the antiquated Soviet pollution-belchers were pretty doggone low on the productivity scale.

One of these days, I'll try to dig a little deeper to update these stats.

[Willie Green]

Its interesting to see that US Steel is hedging its bet on the future of American steel by buying into European steel manufacturing.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm under the impression that they're mostly going after the el-cheapo pollution-belching EASTERN-European mills.
It makes sense. They can afford to buy them cheap and retrofit new technology to boost productivity rather quickly. And although the new-tech may produce "less" pollution, they won't be forced to invest in the extreme enviro-controls that they've had to install here, lowering their ROI.

I don't blame them. I blame Congress for shackling our domestic industry, then undermining it by subjecting it to imports. Had they done that 40~60 years ago, Stalin and Kruschev would have been their biggest chearleaders! It probably would have put a big grin on Mao Tse Tung's face as well.

[Tribune7]

It's a valuable chart Willie. Good job.

I wasn't so much interested in productivity but tonnage. It's my understanding that most of the dumping problems are being caused by the Iron Curtain mills.

And if this is the case one wonders why isn't the global warming, ecology-worshiping, "we are the world" crowd trying to close them down.

[Willie Green]

I wasn't so much interested in productivity but tonnage. It's my understanding that most of the dumping problems are being caused by the Iron Curtain mills.

Well the total tonnage produced still doesn't give any indication where it's being shipped or used.
I could be wrong due to shifting markets, but I'm still under the impression that our dumping concerns are with nations like Brazil, Mexico, Japan, South Korea and China. I'm not sure where former Soviet-bloc steel may be going. The last I heard, we were more affected by their Aluminum smelters undercutting ours. The whole Enron fiasco and Kalifornia power crisis didn't help that situation at all. (Plus Boeing moving a lot of production to China.)