Steel Products
Update: Section 232 White House Meeting
Written by Sandy Williams
February 13, 2018
Tariffs are an option to stop steel dumping, said President Donald Trump at a bipartisan meeting of legislators this morning.
“I want to keep prices down, but I want to make sure that we have a steel industry,” said Trump, according to a Bloomberg report.
“Part of the options would be tariffs coming in. As they dump steel, they pay tariffs, substantial tariffs, which means the United States would actually make a lot of money,” said Trump.
Fifteen Republicans and four Democrats met with the president, commerce secretary and U.S. trade representative to discuss possible actions on the import of steel and aluminum under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.
Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) cautioned against using Section 232: “Invoking national security, when I think it’s really hard to make that case, invites retaliation,” he told Trump.
Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, added that only 3 percent of imported steel is used for national-security purposes. Trump countered that the amount will go up with defense budget increases.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross suggested a “much more surgical way” of applying Section 232 by imposing tariffs on imports from certain countries and quotas on those suspected of transshipment.
Note: Developing news to be updated in this evening’s edition of Steel Market Update

Sandy Williams
Read more from Sandy WilliamsLatest in Steel Products

Nucor maintains plate prices, again
Nucor aims to keep plate prices flat again with the opening of its July order book.

Asian HR remains much cheaper than US, EU product
Domestic hot-rolled (HR) coil prices were flat this week after declining seven of the last nine weeks. Offshore prices have also eroded in recent weeks, though not nearly as significantly as in the US.

Galv buyers less optimistic about short-term market
“It was a little more of a seller's market as contractors seemed to be protecting themselves against a potential run up in prices," one buyer said.

SMU flat-rolled market survey results now available
SMU’s latest steel buyers market survey results are now available on our website to all premium members. After logging in at steelmarketupdate.com, visit the pricing and analysis tab and look under the “survey results” section for “latest survey results.” Past survey results are also available under that selection. If you need help accessing the survey results, or if […]

US, offshore CRC prices continue to fall
US cold-rolled (CR) coil prices were down again this week, slipping six weeks in a row and seeing the sharpest drop-off since last July.