Word: steeled
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...even contemplate signing away his free-market beliefs right in the middle of a renewed push in Congress for fast-track authority and freer world trade? Because the Pension Benefit Guarantee Act already puts the government on the hook for at least $2 billion in pension costs if Big Steel goes under. Because steel-state congressmen might be persuaded to help Bush pass free-trade legislation, if their constituents are the exception to the rule. Because the steel states and the swing states - West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania -are one and the same...
...became obvious Friday, with the recommendation by the federal International Trade Commission that Congress pass temporary tariffs from 5 percent to 40 percent on 16 different steel products, that the White House will at least be playing ball. (The industry, which has lost 26 companies to bankruptcy in recent years, wanted tariffs of 30-50 percent.) And it's too much for any free- marketeer to hope that the next few months won't see Bush, driven by his unshakable belief in winning West Virginia again, is going to find some way to keep the industry (and the politicians...
...steel industry's problems are roughly the same as they were at the turn of the century when Carnegie Steel, Federal Steel and eight other steel companies formed the behemoth U.S. Steel: Excess capacity, slumping prices and profit margins squeezed by too much competition. (The pension problem came later.) That merger helped, but debt-ridden, none-too-efficient U.S. Steel steadily shed market share over the next century - especially to an explosion of foreign competitors after WWII - and today produces only marginally more steel than...
...great time to be in the business. The global economy is slumping and the world's iron-into-steel producers now churn out about 850 million tons of product for a market that demands only 700 million tons. U.S. steel makers say the cheaper steel that comes to U.S. shores from Japan, Brazil, China and other countries is "dumped," or subsidized by those countries' governments. The foreign steel makers and the U.S. companies who buy from them say U.S. steel companies have outdated facilities that make production more expensive. Either way, the U.S. steel industry, between the profits...
...what, exactly, is the U.S. government supposed to do about it? The patriotic "national interest" line pushed so hard by steel makers (and a zillion other industries) since Sept. 11 is a bit shaky. Domestic producers could produce a fraction of what they do now and still have enough to cover the defense industry's needs, and even if they all went out of business it's hard to imagine a war that would induce countries like South Korea, Mexico, Argentina and Japan to impose some politically inspired OPEC-style embargo...