Donald Trump says HIS efforts will bring manufacturing BACK to America ….
THAT isn’t happening with US Steel ….
U.S. Steel announced it will temporarily halt production at two domestic plants despite the boost from the Trump administration’s tariffs, as a steel industry singled out for federal support shows signs of weakening.
On Tuesday, U.S. Steel said it would temporarily halt operations at a blast furnace near Detroit as well as one in Gary, Ind., on the shore of Lake Michigan. U.S. Steel will be idling a third plant in Europe, the company said.
The closure runs in sharp contrast to the narrative President Trump has offered about the steel industry. Tuesday night in Orlando, as he formally announced he was running for reelection, Trump boasted about helping the steel industry through the use of tariffs on imports.
“Thanks to our tariffs, American steel mills are roaring back to life, you know that,” he said.
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Trump’s tariffs helped the steel industry’s resurgence in 2017 and 2018, leading to soaring profits and company plans to restart old plants. Amid the favorable business climate, contract negotiations last year led U.S. Steel workers to receive their biggest pay increases in years.
Trump celebrated the steel industry’s improvement under his administration, calling it a key success story of his tariffs. Last month, he tweeted that “in one year Tariffs have rebuilt our Steel Industry — it is booming! . . . we now have a big and growing industry.”
But steel prices have since fallen dramatically from 2018 to 2019, in part because of weakening demand across Europe as well as weakening demand in the United States. ArcelorMittal also announced last month it will be idling steel mills in Europe.
Trump’s steel tariffs may help curb the competition facing American steel producers in domestic markets, but Chinese steel can still help drive down prices in Europe and in other competitive markets, industry analysts say.
“It can still show up in multiple different places, and not necessarily with the ‘China’ brand on it,” Moss said. “There’s a supply component of this which has not gone away, despite the tariffs. ”
Trump’s steel tariffs are costing U.S. consumers and businesses more than $900,000 a year for every job created, according to a report by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a think tank that supports free market policies….