Steel Imports

TORONTO -- The Canadian government imposed provisional tariffs on steel from the United States yesterday, two days after the United States imposed steep duties on Canadian steel imports.Canadian officials insisted that the proximity of the decisions was coincidental. But they left little doubt that their investigation of unfair trade by American steel makers was a tit-for-tat reaction to similar moves by Washington in relation to Canadian steel imports.Canada and the United States both took action against imported steel that they say is sold in their markets at prices below what it fetches in the country of origin.

WASHINGTON -- General Motors Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and the four other largest automakers said yesterday that they will petition an independent government agency to lift tariffs on corrosion-resistant steel from six countries. With steel prices near 18-month highs, the 13-year-old duties on the steel used to make parts are no longer necessary, the auto companies say. "The steel industry now is completely different than it was 13 years ago," Mustafa Mohatarem, GM's chief economist, said in an interview.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- Bethlehem Steel Corp. yesterday reported significantly smaller losses in last year's fourth quarter and said that, thanks partly to temporary duties on steel imports, it hoped to record a profit this year.Bethlehem, the nation's second-largest steel maker, also announced moves to help it reach its goal."If the economy continues to improve, fair trade in steel is achieved, and the value and demand for steel strengthen as expected, we believe that the actions we are taking to improve operating performance will return Bethlehem to profitability later this year," Curtis H. Barnette, chairman and chief executive, told reporters at a news conference.

President Bush moved yesterday, as expected, to lift tariffs designed to protect the U.S. steel industry from foreign competition. While the industry condemned the decision, some experts said steelmakers could thrive over the next several years without help from the tariffs, propelled by a strengthening economy, more efficient operations and a weakening dollar, which has made steel imports more costly. If the steel industry does thrive, it could take the sting out of yesterday's controversial decision and win Bush votes in pivotal steel-producing states as he wages his re-election campaign next year.

LAST MONTH Bethlehem Steel Corp. forecast intense competition that includes what the company calls unfairly traded imports.Curtis H. Barnette, Bethlehem chairman and CEO, said the company would "closely monitor" a recent increase in such imports. In November, the U.S. imported almost 3.2 million tons of steel products, reportedly the highest level in a single month ever. Imports in the first 11 months of 1996 surpassed all of 1995.Stainless steel imports in the first 10 months of 1996 -- the most recent available statistics -- were up about 15 percent from the previous year.

When a cargo broker needs to deliver foreign steel to the port of Baltimore, more than likely Robert Herb will get the call. His company coordinates all the details needed to get steel into the port, from the pilots who guide the ships up the Chesapeake Bay to the tugboat operators who maneuver the ships to the stevedores who unload the cargo. And Herb is as anxious as anyone to hear what President Bush will do about steel imports. In the wake of an extraordinary lobbying campaign by U.S. steel makers and steel workers who blame imports for driving down prices and devastating the industry, the president is expected to announce by Wednesday what actions he will take.

WASHINGTON -- By a clear majority, the House passed a bill yesterday that would set strict limits on steel imports, as many lawmakers in both parties criticized the Clinton administration for having allowed cheaper foreign steel to flood the U.S. market.The bill's fate in the Senate appears less certain, and President Clinton's senior advisers are recommending a veto. Nevertheless, its advocates proclaimed the legislation a much-needed response to efforts by foreign producers to swamp U.S. ports with under-priced steel.

LOW-PRICED steel from Japan, Russia and Brazil is undercutting domestic producers and forcing them to cut prices. American steel companies have filed complaints accusing the countries of "dumping" -- selling the steel at less than the cost of making it. The House wants the Clinton administration to ban steel imports from 10 countries for a year. Bethlehem Steel says the flood of imports may cause layoffs at its Sparrows Point Division.But what does cheap steel mean to the manufacturers who use it?

Macy's to alter reorganizationR. H. Macy & Co. said yesterday that it would submit a revised plan of reorganization April 29 as scheduled after dissident board members on Monday threatened to step in with a bid of their own for the bankrupt retailer.A minority of the Macy board, led by Laurence A. Tisch, said it was prepared to act if a reorganization plan valued the company below what they believed it was worth.In reaction, Macy's chairman and chief executive, Myron E. Ullman III, said the majority of the board continued to endorse the principles of a Macy's plan presented in March.

Bear Stearns has good quarterBear Stearns Cos. yesterday reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter, further evidence that Wall Street is on the mend even as profits are down from a year ago, analysts said.Net income at the nation's sixth-largest securities firm was $82.7 million, or 63 cents a share, during the quarter ended March 30, down 28 percent from $115.5 million, or 88 cents, last year.Bear Stearns' earnings surpassed analysts' forecasts of about 38 cents a share.

WASHINGTON - President Bush may announce as early as this week that he plans to repeal tariffs on imported steel after the European Union and Japan threatened sanctions on $2.3 billion in U.S. goods, a White House official said yesterday. Bush plans to comply with a ruling by the World Trade Organization after accepting counsel from advisers that trade disputes would do more harm than good, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. A decision won't be announced until after Bush travels to Pittsburgh today to raise money for his re-election campaign, the aide said.

FRENCH CANDLEMAKERS, the 19th century economist Frederic Bastiat wrote in a famed satire, so suffer "ruinous competition" from the sun "flooding the domestic market" with its superior light that the government must mandate "the closing of all windows, dormers, skylights ... all openings, holes, chinks and fissures through which the light of the sun is wont to enter houses." This biting attack on such interventions comes to mind as President Bush faces the highly charged decision of whether to drop or reduce tariffs running as much as 24 percent that he placed on steel imports in March 2002.

With the decline of the steel industry costing thousands of jobs and devastating the region's Sparrows Point mill, the Baltimore City Council will weigh in on the issue next week with a resolution urging President Bush to keep the steel tariffs that are designed to protect the troubled domestic steel industry from imports. Council President Sheila Dixon said she will introduce the resolution at the council meeting Monday at City Hall. Dixon is asking the council to adopt it immediately.

International Steel Group Inc., which bought Bethlehem Steel Corp. in May, is hoping to raise $250 million in what could be the first initial public offering of a major domestic steelmaker in nearly a decade. Cleveland-based ISG, the second-largest steelmaker in the country, plans to use proceeds from an IPO to pay down debt related to its $1.5 billion acquisition of Bethlehem, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. A date for the IPO has not been set. An ISG spokesman declined to comment yesterday while the Securities and Exchange Commission is reviewing the IPO filing.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration exempted yesterday 295 steel products from import tariffs levied a year ago, including wine-barrel strips for Illinois Tool Works Inc. and zinc-coated sheets that Sharp Corp. uses to make microwave ovens. The exclusions, which producers estimate represent 360,000 tons of imports, bring to 995 the products exempted from duties that are as high as 24 percent. A quarter of the 13 million tons of steel imports originally covered by the tariffs imposed by President Bush in March last year had been exempted in subsequent months, according to the Commerce Department.

After its hard-won battle for tariffs on imported steel, the domestic industry is taking action to make sure those duties are enforced as rigorously as possible. To that end, representatives of domestic producers will be in Baltimore beginning today to give "Steel 101" training to U.S. Customs Service officers for the port of Baltimore. The agents are to be educated on how to look for suspicious shipments, such as a load of, say, cold-rolled steel from a country that has no cold mills.

Fraud charge leads to raidAn investment company founded by the president of Spectrum Information Technologies Inc. was raided yesterday, and five people were arrested on federal charges that the firm bilked small companies looking for capital.According to a federal complaint filed in Brooklyn, N.Y., the firm, now called Paradigm Investments, defrauded the target companies out of as much as $30,000 each as they ostensibly sought sources of new financing.Among those arrested was John Bohrman, son-in-law of Spectrum President Peter Caserta, who recently sold Paradigm to Mr. Bohrman.

WASHINGTON -- Steelmakers scored another victory yesterday in their campaign to limit steel imports when a government agency ruled that a surge in cheap Japanese and South Korean steel products used to build U.S. office buildings may have injured domestic producers.While the International Trade Commission voted to proceed with an investigation of the Asian producers, it dropped charges against German and Spanish producers, a move that disappointed U.S. producers."Imports from these two countries were a problem and did cause injury to the U.S. industry and they are likely to return," said Alan Price, an attorney for the U.S. steelmakers.

WASHINGTON - Legislation that pledges as much as $13 billion to pay health insurance for retired steelworkers is facing resistance, prompting concern that a cornerstone of industry plans to consolidate may be jeopardized. The measure's failure would mean companies such as U.S. Steel Corp. would be unable to acquire weaker rivals such as bankrupt Bethlehem Steel Corp. because commitments to retirees, obligations known as "legacy costs," are too high. "There won't be any restructuring without the legacy costs being dealt with," Gary Hubbard, a spokesman for the United Steelworkers of America labor union, said yesterday.

In the Region Black & Decker says battery maker infringed on patents Black & Decker Corp. is suing a Dallas company, alleging that it infringed on two of the Towson company's patents for power supplies for cordless products. The suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Del., accuses Interstate Battery System International Inc. of "importing, manufacturing, using, selling and offering for sale rechargeable replacement batteries for the DeWalt-brand cordless power tool products."