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The one steel mill in Granite City, IL is the only steel mill restarting. It seems to to be the sole company benefiting from the trade war. Whereas many other companies all across the nation, plus farmers and fisherman in most states, are negatively impacted by the same trade war. Seems they are all donating billions of dollars in lost income for the benefit of a few hundred workers in Granite City, IL. Corporate welfare on the backs of hard workers and farmers.
Other steel mills can never reopen because the buildings were razed dozens of years ago, such as Wisconsin Steel and US Steel in Chicago, resulting in 16,000 lost jobs. These jobs are forever gone. The mills won't reopen because the buildings are gone.
No one ever said it "wouldn't happen". Of course steel mills will reopen; and price of their products will be higher because of restricted competition.
Steel prices have risen and are expected to continue that trajectory since His Orangeness announced tariffs. United States consumers will pay higher prices for anything made from or with steel (from buildings to washing machines), as manufactures and others simply pass those price increases down the line.
Ignorance of basic economics from certain demographics astounds one. Study after study in countries around the world for over one hundred years all reach same conclusion. Tariffs lead in restricted markets and higher prices. This in turn can (and most often does) fuel inflation.
That last bit is already happening and in typical lunacy from DT the man is now at war with Federal Reserve. Why? Because they are doing their mandated job in trying to control inflation, something largely fueled now by two of actions of His Orangeness; the huge tax cut (sorry, reform), and now tariffs and looming trade wars.
A contemporary "steel mill" bears little resemblance to the image of blast furnaces, open hearths and rolling mills that are conjured up in most peoples' imaginations; Here's a link to one which was under construction in Virginia while I lived there -- and that was twenty years ago:
The feedstock for a modern "mini-mill" consists almost entirely of scrap, melted down and recycled by electric furnaces, and converted into a limited line of standardized product. It can be shut down and reactivated at a later date if market condition change, and much of the equipment can be relocated if costs in a particular location (read that "strong union") get too steep.
Certain specialty steels require a component of pig iron smelted directly from ore, so a few blast furnaces remain in operation, but the proportion of feedstock produced in this manner is much smaller.
The last major integrated (ore to finished product) steel mills were Bethlehem's Indiana Harbor facility (1962), and USS' Fairless Works near Morrisville, PA / Trenton, NJ, a few years earlier. Plans for a new USS mill near Conneaut, OH were scuttled around 1970, when the "writing on the wall" became apparent.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 07-22-2018 at 04:50 PM..
There are always domestic winners and losers with tarriffs. Those who get more jobs and money and subsidized by consumers who pay above-market prices and by other industries that get whacked by higher costs or happen to be more in the crosshairs of retaliatory tariffs.
When you support tariffs like this, you support the government intervening into market economics and picking winners and losers.
Thought you conservatives supported free market capitalism, but apparently you dont.
Chicago Tribune has been covering this story since it broke, with recent articles on how reopening that steel mill has affected local area.
Obviously rehired and newly employed workers are happy. Equally also are local businesses, the town and whoever else benefits from those 500 (originally announced as 800), workers spending money.
Many of them do not believe DT's tariffs will lead to increased consumer prices. But if they do "so what?". Americans should be "happy to pay a little more if it helps other American workers".
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