Steel Industry

The U.S. steel industry, hammered by imports in the past, now is turning the tables a bit with a dramatic increase in exports in recent months to European and Asian countries.One of the chief beneficiaries of the surge is Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s Sparrows Point mill in Baltimore County, where exports have multiplied by 20 this year to 400,000 tons.But, even though Sparrows Point hopes to cement some of these new foreign relations, analysts warn that the export boom may fade as foreign economies hit their peak and decline.

With all the screaming and scandal and nonsense over a possible casino at National Harbor, has no one asked how many casinos we need here in Maryland ("Baltimore casino names manager," Sept. 26)? Once upon a time this nation produced products that could be sold for profit and the generation of tax dollars. Today, while politicians allow the steel industry in Maryland and across America to die, they fall all over themselves building casinos that generate no products and rely on income earned in other lines of work.

Having achieved mixed results in its efforts to restrict steel imports through the regulatory process, the steel industry is now trying to change the trade laws themselves -- an action that is raising the hackles of steel importers.The object of the steel industry's attention is the legislation implementing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) -- the multinational agreement aimed at lowering trade barriers. Steel importers and users charge that the steel industry is trying to include provisions in the bill that are contrary to its purpose.

The auction for RG Steel's Sparrows Point steel mill, expected today, will be delayed by a week. Attorneys for the company, which is in bankruptcy protection, confirmed Tuesday morning that the sale was not underway as originally planned. An attorney for Kinder Morgan, one of the major creditors, said the auction had been rescheduled to next week. Jerry Conners, president of the United Steelworkers Local 1223 in Yorkville, Ohio, said he was told RG Steel's Wheeling, W.Va., assets were being auctioned off Tuesday.

CHICAGO -- Given its disastrous showing in the 1980s, when it dropped billions and shed 60 percent of its workers, you might expect the U.S. steel industry to be swallowing tons of aspirin and boarding up its windows.But the recessionary alarms going off all around have yet to stir serious jitters in the steel industry, and analysts and industry officials say it is not a matter of bluffing or blindness.The steel industry of the 1990s is very different from that of the 1980s, when the United States sank into its last recession, they say. Furthermore, few expect the economy to take as deep a plunge.

Steel industry supporters said yesterday that they will make another attempt to add an industry health-coverage provision to the trade bill making its way through Congress. Senate and White House negotiators agreed Thursday to abandon language in the trade bill that would have provided one year of health insurance to steel workers and retirees who had lost their coverage. Amid rising imports that helped lower prices, more than 30 U.S. steel companies have filed for bankruptcy protection since late 1997 and more than 125,000 retirees have lost their health coverage.

The company that nearly purchased Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s shipyard two years ago is back, but this time it is not clear whether it's trying to buy or sell.WHX Corp. said Monday that it had purchased 1.6 percent of Bethlehem shares. Rather than signaling a takeover bid, analysts said, the purchase might mean the New York firm is trying to lure Bethlehem into making a bid of its own for WHX's steel subsidiary."What it might be is a different approach; attack Beth hoping they'll turn around and take you out. It's the Pac-Man defense," said Charles A. Bradford of Bradford Research in New York.

While cleaning up the air around Baltimore and saving the company costly pollution fines, Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s decision to suspend operations at its Sparrows Point coke ovens could hurt the U.S. steel industry's competitiveness, industry experts said yesterday.Idling the coke ovens will delay or scuttle a couple of federally funded experiments that might have allowed similar facilities nationwide to operate with far lower pollution.And, industry officials say, closing the three Baltimore batteries (where coal is baked into a hard, pure form of carbon called coke)

The celebration yesterday of Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s new $300 million cold mill at Sparrows Point was tempered a bit by the fact that imported steel is on the rise and driving down prices. Bethlehem spent more than $600 million renovating the Baltimore County plant, the largest piece of which was the cold mill. Had the steelmaker's board of directors declined to invest in the new mill, company officials said, it would have been the beginning of the end for the 113-year-old Sparrows Point facility.

With the steel industry's perilous position underscored by Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s bankruptcy filing earlier this week, two local congressmen went to the Sparrows Point plant yesterday to assure management and union leaders that Congress is working on their behalf. Bethlehem was the 24th U.S. steel maker - and the largest - to file for bankruptcy protection since late 1998, and Reps. Benjamin L. Cardin and Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said several legislative and executive actions that are pending could bring some relief.

With the Sparrows Point steel mill preparing for a shutdown next week and a possible sale, Baltimore County officials began looking Wednesday for ways to redevelop the peninsula, bringing new jobs and businesses to the area around the ailing plant. In naming a task force to come up with ideas for the land, officials said they hope to capitalize on the expansion of the nearby port of Baltimore to lure new industry and revitalize communities that have been hit hard by unemployment.

Three years ago, the purchase of the Sparrows Point steel mill by OAO Severstal was greeted with considerable cheer. After all, the one thing the Russian steelmaker could provide would surely be stable ownership after all the uncertainty of the ArcelorMittal takeover and the Bethlehem Steel bankruptcy. Of course, what wasn't so obvious in March 2008 was how far the U.S. and global economies would fall in the economic recession, and the hardship that would cause the steel industry.

CHICAGO -- In a decision that will cheer domestic steel producers but disappoint U.S. manufacturers that buy steel to make their products, the U.S. International Trade Commission voted yesterday to extend anti-dumping duties on hot-rolled steel imported from China and five other countries. The fight over the import duties on hot-rolled steel is the latest flash point between the U.S. steel industry and domestic steel consumers. The domestic steel industry argues that U.S. steelmakers need protection, in the form of anti-dumping and countervailing duties, from low-cost steel imports from China and other countries that don't abide by U.S. trade rules.

In a move that cheered automakers but angered domestic steel producers, the U.S. International Trade Commission yesterday eliminated most of its controversial tariffs on carbon-steel imports. The independent federal agency's ruling ends an unusual, high-profile feud between two American smokestack industries battered by global competition, Big Steel and its major customer, the auto industry. The commission's action will lower the price auto companies pay for steel and bring a similar benefit to other major steel buyers, such as implement makers Caterpillar Inc. and Deere & Co. Those same lower steel prices promise to pressure profits at many American steel producers.

Foreign ownership of steel is big threat Jay Hancock's article "Another new owner might not be bad for the Point" (Nov.15) lays out a very clear picture of what's ahead for the American steel industry. Some bells should be going off in the heads of our politicians with the United States still at war and the biggest part of the American steel industry owned by non-American citizens. Mr. Hancock says that "for Sparrows Point, one more change might be better than the status quo." Yes - but I take that to mean American ownership of Sparrows Point steel mills.

Executives from the nation's largest steel manufacturers, including Sparrows Point owner Mittal Steel Co. NV, will face off with automakers today over tariffs on foreign-made corrosion-resistant steel. DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Nissan and Toyota want the U.S. International Trade Commission to drop the duties on imports from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and South Korea, a request fiercely resisted by steelmakers.

A U.S. trade agency ruled yesterday that stainless-steel round wire allegedly "dumped" on the U.S. market by makers in Japan, South Korea and four other countries has not injured U.S. manufacturers, a setback for an industry that has launched a counterattack on cheap imports.The case was filed by Cockeysville-based Handy & Harman Specialty Wire Group Inc. and nine other companies. Specialty Wire is a unit of Handy & Harman, based in New York."We are deeply disappointed in the negative finding of injury," said George Kurisky, a vice president at Handy & Harman who also is chairman of the U.S. Stainless Wire Action Committee, an industry coalition.

Steel workers at Bethlehem Steel Corp. and USX Corp.'s U.S. Steel Group will begin voting within several days on new five-year labor contracts that would grant wage increases and boost pension payouts.Paper ballots should be mailed in the next day or so, according to the United Steelworkers of America union.Once they receive their ballots, union members will have 21 days to vote on the tentative contracts. The goal is to ratify the pacts before they expire at midnight July 31.The agreements -- which differ only in minor details -- include annual pay raises and significant increases in pension benefits, though officials with both companies and the union have declined to comment.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. steelmakers struck back this week against a push by the six largest automakers that assemble vehicles in the United States to end tariffs on certain types of imported steel. They warned that thousands of steel-making jobs could be at risk if the tariffs are lifted. The U.S. International Trade Commission will hear arguments as to whether tariffs on corrosion-resistant steel from six countries should end. The tariffs have been in place since 1993, after the steel industry accused foreign producers of dumping their products in the United States.

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.