New York Times (March 15)
“There’s no way to bring back all those steel plants and steel jobs, even if we stopped all imports. Partly that’s because a modern economy doesn’t use that much steel, partly because we can produce steel using many fewer workers, partly because old-fashioned open-hearth plants have been replaced by mini-mills that use scrap metal and aren’t in the same places. So this is all a fantasy.”
Tags: Economy, Imports, Jobs, Mini-mills, Plants, Scrap metal, Steel
Wall Street Journal (March 1)
“Donald Trump made the biggest policy blunder of his Presidency Thursday by announcing that next week he’ll impose tariffs of 25% on imported steel and 10% on aluminum. This tax increase will punish American workers, invite retaliation that will harm U.S. exports, divide his political coalition at home, anger allies abroad, and undermine his tax and regulatory reforms. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.7% on the news, as investors absorbed the self-inflicted folly.”
Financial Times (August 13)
“Mr Trump’s campaign promises to rip up trade agreements and protect heavy industries like steel are running into the complex realities of international supply chains.” By examining actual U.S. business practices, “you encounter how the president’s economic nationalism is clashing with the complexities of what the label ‘Made in America’ actually means in today’s world.”
Tags: Clashing, Complexities, Economic nationalism, Promises, Realities, Steel, Supply chains, Trade agreements, Trump, U.S.
The Economist (September 10)
“New techniques mean that wood can now be used for much taller buildings,” potentially reducing the carbon footprint by nearly 75% compared with conventional steel and concrete structures. A 14-story wooden structure in Bergen, Norway will soon be unseated as the world’s tallest when an 18-story wooden dormitory goes up at the University of British Columbia in Canada in 2017. But UBC’s Brock Commons will soon be surpassed by a 21-story building in Amsterdam. “Some architects have even started designing wooden skyscrapers, like the proposed Tratoppen…a 40-floor residential tower on the drawing-board in Stockholm.”
Tags: Amsterdam, Architects, Buildings, Canada, Carbon footprint, Concrete, Norway, Skyscrapers, Steel, Stockholm, Structures, Tratoppen, UBC, Wood
Wall Street Journal (May 19)
“If the U.S. had not come to the aid of the Korean people, or if we in the South had lost the war, I would not be standing here.” Kwon Oh-joon, CEO of steel manufacturer Posco, made this comment when he received the Korea Society’s Van Fleet Award in New York.
Tags: CEO, Kwon Oh-joon, New York, Posco, South Korea, Steel, U.S., War
Euromoney (February Issue)
In Mexico, “cheaper electricity will lower manufacturing costs across the board, and the country could become a competitor in energy-intensive industries such as aluminum and steel production.” President Enrique Peña Nieto introduced sweeping reforms to liberalize the electricity and oil and gas sectors, prompting analysts to add “an extra 1.5% to future GDP growth rates as a direct consequence of the scope of these reforms and many say the risks are on the upside. Suppliers, contractors and a whole host of other industries will benefit.”
Tags: Aluminum, Analysts, Competitor, Contractors, Costs, Electricity, Enrique Peña Nieto, Gas, GDP, Manufacturing, Mexico, Oil, Reforms, Risks, Steel, Suppliers, Upside
The Economist (February 16)
“Exotic but useful metals such as tantalum and titanium are about to become cheap and plentiful.” Prices of neodymium, tungsten and vanadium may also drop if a new revolutionary production process utilizing electrolysis fulfills its promise. To date, costly and cumbersome production processes have kept prices of these metals prohibitively high, limiting their applications. “The idea that steel itself might one day be displaced by titanium is a long shot, but it is no longer inconceivable.”
New York Times (December 27)
“China’s housing bubble appears to be imploding, steel production is falling along with the demand for new construction and real estate developers are tottering, putting banks at risk.” A hard landing in China would be a blow to the world economy. It could also spark a trade war and this could be the “bigger risk” as China tries to prop up its domestic economy by subsidizing exports and discouraging imports.
