Free Mills And Boon

[Orestes Hardy]

InPittsburgh, where Biden announced his stimulus plan on Wednesday, U.S. Steel has no plans to bring back furnaces idled during the height of the pandemic or hire more workers, even though the industry has long known the spending package was coming.

Meanwhile, Coilplus Inc., a steel processor in Rosemont, Illinois, is having to buy foreign steel because the domestic mills simply can't produce enough, Chief Operating Officer Jim Lehr said. The steelmakers have told him some products are sold out through next year, meaning he needs to find tons elsewhere for the next two years, right when infrastructure projects would begin coming online.

The price of a short ton of U.S.-made hot-rolled coil steel is more than $1,300, whereas the cost to import it including tariffs and transportation fees is about $1,000 a ton. The difference is the largest premium for American steel since Trump implemented Section 232 tariffs to protect the industry in the name of national security.

Biden, steel executives and steelworkers want provisions that would require any of the federal-sponsored stimulus programs to use a high percentage of U.S.-made steel, which would in theory help get people back to work.

U.S. steel consumption will be about 104 million tons this year and about 108 million tons in 2022, outpacing supplies of 87 million and 91 million tons, respectively, from American steelmakers in the next two years, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Andrew Cosgrove.

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